Rehabilitating Vlad
by Charmed-and-More
Summary: After PP. Vlad returns to earth, but not by choice. Remembering the Vlad that begged for a second chance during TUE, Danny decides to help him. How will he do this? Well let’s just say there’s therapy, a make-over, and go-carts involved! DxS D/V Bonding
1. Chapter 1: He's Back

**Whoo! I have been super annoyingly busy these past two weeks. It feels so good to finally be able to sit down and write this. As I said on my profile page, I actually wrote the first two chapters of this before I got busy, but I couldn't post them. They weren't good. I wasn't happy. Now I think they're how I want them and I've written a few more chapters so now it's time for you to start enjoying them! Without further ado, here it is, my version of what could have possibly happened after Phantom Planet. Enjoy!**

Danny stared at the man across from him through the clear plastic barrier. He observed how thin he had gotten, how his facial hair had grown out, how his eyes seemed lifeless as if they weren't really looking at anything. The man wore one of those bright orange jumpsuits they make you wear in prison. The bright neon color only made him look grayer, blander, and more . . . Danny couldn't help thinking it . . . like a ghost. Not the green glowing kind he fought, but the kind you see in movies, a spirit, solemn and transparent, yet still visible.

"Vlad," Danny suddenly said into the black phone at his ear, though Vlad probably could have heard him without it. No one else was in the visiting room with them except for some guards who stood at ease against the wall behind Vlad. It was obvious they didn't see him as much of an escape risk. Danny doubted that Vlad could even stand, he looked so weak and out of it.

Danny had startled him with the sudden sound. They'd been sitting in silence for the first few minutes of Danny's visit. Danny was gathering his thoughts. Vlad seemed unable to talk. For a second Danny could see some life in his eyes as he flicked them over to rest on Danny.

"Yah?" Vlad answered hoarsely into his phone on the other side.

"I'm gonna help you. I think you deserve a second chance and I'm gonna give it to you," Danny spoke slowly and deliberately, "but not right now. You have to do what they say for now. Okay?"

The body that once held Vlad Masters, powerful billionaire, confident mayor, and skilled half-ghost, simply nodded back without emotion. And then they were escorting him away.

Danny stayed seated wondering if this was really happening. These last few months had been so busy, it felt like an eternity ago when he'd watched his dad leave Vlad in space, when he'd gone on to save the world while Vlad melted into oblivion. The world seemed to have forgotten about the other half-ghost when all of a sudden, boom – he was back.

Danny had been sitting at home, just minding his own business. Actually now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure he was kissing Sam. Yup, he was definitely kissing Sam as they snuggled on his couch for what had become one of their traditions, movie night Sunday, when he found out that his arch-enemy had returned to Earth. The movie hadn't exactly been turned on yet so the TV was playing the news. Danny didn't even hear the news reporter say Vlad's name but Sam did and she stopped kissing him to look up at the TV.

"What?" he said, annoyed that something could take her attention off him for even a second.

But she didn't answer. She just kept staring, her mouth gaping open. So Danny looked too and also starting gaping.

"It appears that the small object that crashed to earth just outside of Amity Park only seconds ago is not in fact what it was originally thought to be. Authorities were not expecting the projectile, but assumed it to be just another after-effect of the disasteroid until they came out here and took a closer look," the reporter continued on in that funny way news people talk, "What they found appeared to be a person, but not just any person. The body has been identified as that of Vlad Masters also known as Vlad Plasmius, the corrupt half-ghost that attempted to take over the world during the disasteroid crisis. I have not heard word yet as to whether he is dead, or merely unconscious, though for the world's sake we are hoping for the former. I do know that upon coming in contact with the body, the authorities used some sort of weapon to lock Masters into his human form so that if he does regain consciousness he will be unable to use any of his ghost powers. Reporting live just outside Amity Park, I'm Amy Mills for Channel 5 News."

They hadn't let Danny see Vlad for a long time, especially once they realized he was alive. The press wanted to know why Danny was so eager to talk to the man who he called his arch-enemy. Danny ignored them, using one of his new favorite phrases, "No comment." When the time finally came and Danny was let into the hospital room that was also functioning as a prison cell, he only had one question.

"Why'd you come back?"

Vlad talked weakly through his oxygen mask without much emotion, "Not my choice. The helmet, it suddenly started flashing warnings and suggested I return to earth. I tried to ignore it, but it's programmed to keep the wearer alive no matter what. So it brought me back."

Danny later found out that some part of the helmet that helped with oxygen flow had broken. A few more seconds and Vlad would have silently suffocated to death in space. The helmet may have still returned his body to earth if it didn't just shut off when it realized its wearer had no pulse.

Over the next few weeks leading up to that strange and very orange interaction at the prison, Danny continued watching the news. When he learned of Vlad's full physical recovery he had come here to see him in prison. He was able to convince his friends and family that he needed to go alone. Now he regretted it as he sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair, wondering what to do next.

When Danny got home that night after speaking with Vlad, if you could even call it that, the news was already reporting what he had said, the "promise" he'd made. "It wasn't a promise," Danny thought bitterly, he distinctly remembered swearing off promises a while back, "stupid press, always twisting what you say and making it into more than what it is." Danny had had plenty of experience by now with reporters and he didn't like them. That's why he wound up doing most of his interviews on talk shows; the hosts were much more interested in _him_ rather than getting a good story out of him.

Danny walked into his house and was immediately bombarded with questions. His parents were the most annoying.

"Danny, did you really mean what you said? Are you really going to help Vlad? After he's done so much to hurt you?" Maddie was practically yelling at him.

"You really think you can get him help? You really think he'll accept your help? Why would you even want to help him?" Jack bumbled, flabbergasted at his son's odd behavior. Danny had been awfully quiet in the weeks since they had learned of Vlad's return, worrying his family and friends. But they had left him alone about it. Until now.

Danny didn't want to look like he was betraying his dad and he really _did_ want his parents to understand what he was doing, but at that particular moment he lost his cool. He couldn't help it. They were all just screaming at him "WHY?" And so he told them.

"Because _I _got a second chance!" he yelled over them.

Silence washed over the room.

"Honey, what," Maddie hesitated, unsure of what he meant but attempting to calm him down, "what do you mean? You mean how the town once thought you were a villain?"

"No," Danny said not making eye contact and stuffing his hands into his pockets, "it's something . . ." he paused to gather up his courage to continue, "it's something I've been meaning to tell you guys about, but it's complicated. But now . . . now it's time so as soon as I can convince the court to let me, we're all going to the Ghost Zone, Vlad included, and then . . . then you'll see."

Danny finally looked up to face his parents' reactions. They looked confused.

"Just trust me, okay?" he tried to sound normal and even forced a half-smile. His parents didn't even know half of the things Vlad had put him through and here they were already questioning his decision. Something would have to be done to convince them this was the right thing to do and on his way home from the prison he believed he had thought of what that might be.

Maddie walked forward and put a comforting hand on her son's shoulder, "We do trust you, Danny," she assured him, "we do."

**I have to admit, I'm missing the old story. This one is kind of serious right now. But don't worry, it gets lighter. Whoa, I just read it again and yah it's kind of devoid of humor right now. It will definitely get better. Bear with me.**


	2. Chapter 2: New Vlad

**Thanks to all my reviewers, new and old! I'm glad I can give you guys what you've been looking for (TPcrazy and InvaderJohnny)! **

**Thanks Luiz4200, for offering ideas from your own fic. I haven't had time to check it out yet, but I feel wrong using other peoples' stuff. **

**Another thanks to Miriam1, a faithful and always very insightful reviewer. You're right. The task I am taking on is huge, but I think I can make it work. You'll see in this chapter some of the answers beginning to form. I just hope you don't think I've taken the easy way out!**

A few weeks had passed by since that day that Danny had seen Vlad at the prison and "promised" to help him. The authorities were busy trying to figure out what to do with Vlad. It was obvious to them that he needed psychological help before any real sentencing could occur. Danny was able to convince some people in high places through private meetings that he could help with Vlad's therapy. So it was decided that once Vlad was out of his stupor (that's what they were calling his half-dead stare) he would be allowed to spend a few hours with Danny every other day. This would give Vlad a chance to prove that he could be rehabilitated and capable of speaking at his trial. Conveniently, it also gave the officials time to figure out what to charge him with. They didn't exactly have a no-holding-the-world-hostage law, but they'd come up with something.

Danny was trying to act normal for his parents' sake, but he constantly thought about what he was going to do with Vlad. He had some ideas and was attempting to piece together a plan when Vlad's psychiatrist called to say that Vlad was ready to see him. Danny didn't want to alarm his parents, but when he got that call and was told a car would drop Vlad off at his house tomorrow, he began getting antsy again. Everyone was worried about him, but he shrugged them off and said it would all be fine.

"But Danny, how do you know?" Sam pleaded with him one night. They were alone so Danny decided to let her in on the secret.

"I've talked to Clock Work," he stated plainly.

"You have?"

"Yah, he said some vague thing about how special I am, but I mean, he would have warned me if this was going to blow up in my face, right?" Danny reasoned.

"Well yah," Sam said mainly for Danny's benefit, "I think he would." She took his hand in hers. "But you're acting like you don't believe that."

"I'm just worried about what my parents are going to think."

"Danny, they've accepted the fact that you're half-ghost," Sam pointed out, "I think they can handle you helping Vlad, especially with how pitiful he looks right now. How can you not feel sorry for him?" She shuddered as the images of Vlad and his cold, comatose stare that had been flashed on TV numerous times by now, bore into her mind.

When there was a knock at the door later the next day, no one expected what was on the other side. Danny half-expected to see the lifeless, hollow Vlad he had seen just weeks ago and half-expected to see him the way he looked before, smarmy and reeking of evil right down to his little red bow-tie.

But the person who stood there when Danny opened the door was simply someone else altogether. Nothing about this Vlad suggested anything about the old Vlad, well, except for his signature pony-tail and beard which had been trimmed since Danny last saw him. He was wearing jeans and a clean, white collared short-sleeved shirt. His eyes looked more alive than they ever had. They didn't even have those evil bags under them anymore. A flicker of embarrassment passed over his features and Danny realized they were all staring. He hated it when people stared at _him _so he quickly tried to snap everyone out of it.

"Hey, come on in," he said casually.

Vlad gave a half-smile and entered Fenton Works. Danny felt everyone behind him (his family, Sam, and Tucker) back up as if they wanted to be at least several feet away from Vlad at all times.

"You look a lot different from when I saw you a few weeks ago," Danny continued as if this whole thing was completely natural.

"Yah," Vlad said looking down, embarrassed, but then he looked back up, remembering how important it is to make eye-contact. His shrink had been clear on that before he left, if you want to let people in then you need to show them with your eyes. That's how he would make progress, that's how he could try to heal the hurt he'd caused.

He continued in a light tone, "It's amazing what some pills, some talking, and uh," he held up his wrist which had a silver cuff on it with a blinking green light, "a whole month away from my ghost-half and my bank account can do."

"I would say 'harsh' but actually . . ." Danny let his voice trail off, unsure about how to talk about the past without actually talking about the past.

"Yah, I know," Vlad said quickly in a I-get-the-message kind of way.

"It seems to be working, I mean, you look like a completely different person."

"But I'm not." Everyone stiffened at this remark, expecting the evil gleam to return to his eyes. Vlad felt the tension in the room and quickly tried to explain.

"That's not what I meant, I . . ." Vlad sighed and did that thing again where he looked down at his feet and then directly into Danny's eyes, "look, you came to me, you told me that it didn't have to end the way it did and so I'm trying, believe me I really am, I just want you to be careful. I'm not . . . I'm not all the way there yet . . . it's going to take time and even then . . . who knows."

Everyone was silent as they absorbed what Vlad had said. Danny broke the silence.

"Well, you admitting all that has gotta count for something, so I think I'm still doing the right thing. And today what you'll see will hopefully be another push in the right direction," Danny finished and drew in a calm breath then gave Vlad another half-smile.

"So . . ." Vlad said awkwardly, "we're going somewhere . . ."

"Right," Danny said, the stress of the task at hand weighing down on him, "we're going to the Ghost Zone to visit a friend of mine. He has the something I want to show you."

He turned so that he could face his family, friends, and Vlad at the same time. "All of you," he added.

"You mean," Jazz suddenly spoke up, "you meant what you said about taking us _all_ into the Ghost Zone?"

"Um, yah, why would you think I didn't?" Danny asked as if he hadn't just been thinking to himself last night about how risky this whole thing was. Not to mention how uncomfortable it was going to be. Vlad had been here a full ten minutes and his parents still refused to speak or show any emotion towards him at all.

"You don't think it'll be dangerous?" Jazz asked.

Danny gave her a look that said, "Well, duh!"

Luckily Sam spoke up. "We can handle it, Jazz. We've been in there like a zillion times already. So we've got a few extra people? No big deal."

Danny shot her a thank-you smile then said authoritatively, "Alright then, let's get ready to roll. Sam, you get the new and improved Specter Speeder warmed up. Mom, Dad, and Jazz, you guys arm yourselves, that is if you aren't already, in case there's trouble. And Tuck, you're in charge of navigation." Danny tossed Tucker the Infi-Map which he had had in his back pocket. "Find out when the nearest opening is going to happen," he instructed. As usual, everyone listened. Sam went down to the lab while Maddie, Jack, and Jazz went off in different directions. Tucker held the map out in front of him and attempted to study it and walk down the stairs to the lab at the same time. It didn't go so well. There was a crash and then a small, "I'm okay!"

Vlad gave a little chuckle.

"Yup, that's 'Team Phantom' for ya," Danny said joking, but also somewhat proud. The media had come up with the name and it had stuck despite his dad insisting that Danny was joining his parents' team and not the other way around.

"Ah, yes, I heard about that, they're supposed to be good," Vlad commented playfully.

"Watch a TV special?" Danny guessed.

"Read an article, actually," Vlad corrected.

"Yah, there's plenty of those too," Danny muttered as he started towards the lab stairs which he had seen his parents and Jazz descend while he was joking with Vlad. Whoa, _joking_ with _Vlad_. Never in a million years did Danny think he'd be doing something like that.

**Notes: **

**1. I gave them a new Specter Speeder just because I don't know if they could all really fit in the old one and they needed more windows so that the parents could see stuff from their seats. But it's pretty much the same, just bigger.**

**2. Yes, Danny kept the Infi-Map. It's only been a few months see PP and he's been busy. It's not like Frostbite really minds. Plus I didn't know how to get them into the Zone since the portal's busted.**

**3. In case you didn't catch all of what Vlad meant when he responded to Danny saying he looked different, I'll spell it out for you: he's on meds (I don't know exactly what kind to put him on, let's just call them Happy Pills cuz most likely he'd need some anti-depressants), he's talking to a psychiatrist during daily sessions, the cuff has him completely blocked off from using his ghost powers, and all his money and most of his possessions are off-limits to him. In my opinion this is the recipe for a new Vlad. :)**


	3. Chapter 3: In the Zone

**Answers to questions/comments (cuz there were a lot of them!):**

**Why are Vlad's possessions and money off limits?**

**Well, mainly because that's what happens when you get arrested for a major crime (and Vlad's is pretty much the epitome of a major crime). But also I guess because the authorities are scared of him and the public's scared of him so they're going to take every precaution they can to make sure Vlad can't do anything bad. I hope that makes sense. Oh and I also think it'll humble him some. **

**Will Vlad have the chance to use his ghost powers again or not?**

**Honestly, I haven't decided on whether or not to go that far in **_**this**_** fic. I can say that at the moment it's not likely. I plan to have Vlad accept himself for who is without them before he's allowed to use them and that could take a while.**

**Invader Johnny's comment about Danny supporting Vlad – yah, the press haven't gotten to see the new Vlad yet so we'll see!**

**Luiz4200's comment about Vlad's money – I had not thought of that! Good point!**

**ArtGirl4's comment about the "yah" – We've already discussed this, but for the rest of you, I apologize. I did not catch that and I agree that Vlad shouldn't say "yah" . . . at least not yet.**

**OK then, here's a nice big juicy chapter for ya!**

"Everybody buckled up?" Sam asked, glancing in the rear-view mirror at the people seated behind her in the Specter-Speeder. It had taken some awkward arranging but everyone had finally gotten seated in a place where they felt comfortable. "Everyone" being his parents and "comfortable" meaning not too close to Vlad, but close enough that they could keep an eye on him. This is how Vlad had wound up having to share the big seat in front of the controls with both Danny _and_ Sam who had finally agreed to let Danny drive after some secret-silent-boyfriend-girlfriend looks had been exchanged. Jack and Maddie occupied the middle row and Tucker and Jazz sat in the back.

Sam didn't get a response to her question. "Okay then," she muttered under her breath to Danny, "this is going to be fun." She looked down at the Infi-Map. With Tucker in the back, he couldn't be navigator anymore. But he had done his part and located an opening into the Ghost Zone that was going to appear above a building downtown in ten minutes.

"We've got eight minutes," Sam reminded Danny. He had switched into ghost-mode while everyone was arguing over seating arrangements. He knew his parents wouldn't say anything if he suddenly changed in front of them, but it still felt kinda weird so he preferred to do it when there was little attention on him.

"No problem," he said to Sam as he eased the Specter-Speeder into the air. He then closed his eyes and managed to turn the entire craft and everyone in it intangible so they could fly through the lab wall and out into the open air.

"Is this going to be your parents' first time in the Ghost Zone?" Vlad suddenly asked.

"Um, yah," Danny said, pretending to be really focused on maneuvering the vehicle through the empty air as if a building that he'd have to dodge was going to pop up any second. "That a problem?" he added, nonchalantly.

"No, not at all," Vlad said sincerely, "actually, it's kind of exciting, I mean, they worked hard to find a way into the Ghost Zone so they should enjoy the fruits of their labor."

"Fruits of their labor?" Danny teased.

"Danny, I've been talking to no one but a psychiatrist for practically a month, what do you expect?" Vlad answered back, playfully.

Danny looked over at him with a very serious look on his face.

"It was a joke, I didn't mean to-" Vlad began to defend himself as if he had to apologize for even _pretending_ to sound annoyed with Danny.

"No, I know that, it's just . . . you don't usually call me Danny."

"Hm, I guess I never have . . ."

"You know," Maddie suddenly cut in, "we can hear you guys, the Speeder isn't _that_ spacious."

Danny looked in the rear-view mirror and met his mother's I-may-be-uncomfortable-with-this-but-that-doesn't-give-you-the-right-to-leave-me-out-of-conversations glare.

"Sorry guys," Danny said in a light tone, "you have anything to say about the fruits of your labor?"

"Only that the portal doesn't seem all that much of an accomplishment now that we know there are apparently hundreds of spontaneous openings into the Ghost Zone around us every day!" Maddie said with a huff.

"Don't forget about the map that can lead you to any one of them at any time," Jack added actually sounding sarcastic for once.

"If it makes you feel any better," Danny said, "the map was _in_ the Ghost Zone when you built our portal so technically you needed the portal to get the map."

"So wait, you got that map from a ghost?" Maddie asked skeptically.

"Um . . . yah, that's a long story," Danny started to explain, but was cut off by Tucker.

"Oh man! We _have_ to take them to meet Frostbite! Ha! That'd be great, you know with him calling you the Gre-"

"Yah, not today," Danny interrupted, cutting Tucker off with a you-know-how-embarrassing-that-would-be-for-me glare.

He caught his parents giving him questioning looks and opened his mouth to try to explain more.

"Danny! The portal!" Sam suddenly interrupted.

"Oh right!" Danny exclaimed and took a sharp turn to enter through the glowing green hole in the sky that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

They glided through and entered the Ghost Zone. Hundreds of purple doors floated around on a back-drop of glowing green energy. Danny looked in the rear-view mirror to see his parents' reactions. Vlad was kind of right about how exciting it must be for them to be able to come in here. Danny had to admit he felt happy when he saw the looks of sheer amazement on both their faces.

Maddie couldn't believe it. After so many years of research, experiments, failures, and successes, here they were in this whole other dimension. A world she believed existed when no one else did. Well, no one that is except for Jack and Vlad. She looked over at her husband and saw the excitement in his features. She thought of how Vlad had hurt him and wondered if Danny was right and their team could be whole again, like it was in the good old days. She furtively tried to catch a view of Vlad's face in the rear-view mirror or on a window. She couldn't so she turned her attention back to the Ghost Zone.

"What's behind all the doors?" she asked.

"Some lead to ghosts' lairs, others to weird creepy places, and some even lead back to our world," Danny explained.

Maddie considered this for a moment. "Don't the ghosts get defensive when you just ride in here like this? I mean, what if one of your enemies sees us and wants us to leave?"

"Mom, I can pretty much give you a 100 guarantee that we will run into one of my enemies," Danny answered, giving her a smile in the mirror, "they may be pests, but they're not complete idiots. They won't attack us."

"Danny!" came a girly squeal from outside the Specter Speeder.

"Bothering me, on the other hand, is a completely different story," Danny said with a slight edge to his voice. He turned to see Kitty walking with Ember on a path to the Speeder's left. Kitty was waving as if she had spotted an old friend in a crowd. Ember had on her usual scowl. Danny grabbed the speaker thingy (I forget what it's called!) so that he could project his voice to them from inside the Speeder.

"Hey Kitty, Ember," he said into the speaker.

"Hey Dipstick," Ember greeted him back, casually.

"Omigosh Danny, I haven't seen you in like the longest time! Guess what! Ember and I are having a completely jerky-guy-free day!" Kitty gushed.

"In other words, we ditched Johnny and Skulker," Ember clarified.

"We were supposed to meet them a whole hour ago and instead we got our nails done! See?!" Kitty held up her hand and waggled her fingers which had red polish on the nails. She turned to see Ember glaring at her with her arms folded. Kitty acted like she didn't notice and grabbed Ember's arm, holding it up so Danny could see her black polish. Ember snatched her arm back and shot Kitty a death glare.

"I hope Johnny likes them," Kitty said looking down at her nails and still ignoring Ember.

Ember sighed and looked at Danny. "Someone's a little new to the whole idea of ditching," she explained. She began dragging Kitty away, but she turned to meet Danny's eyes and say threateningly, "Remember, we're playing hooky, so don't you dare tell Skulker or Johnny you saw us."

"Alright, I won't," Danny assured her.

"Bye Danny!" Kitty waved again.

Danny put the speaker back where it belonged and pushed the Speeder forward once again. They had slowed to a stop when Kitty and Ember distracted him.

"They were . . . friendly," Maddie commented, "Did Sam tell you about when those two along with another tried to take over the town by making all the men disappear?"

"Yes, she did actually," Danny replied, "That was awesome that you, Sam, and Jazz teamed up. I gotta admit I was impressed."

"I think her point was how you can be enemies _and_ friends," Sam cut in.

"Oh, well, it's just one of those things, I mean, when they don't have a reason to fight me, they won't."

"I think it has to do with the fact that you have technically saved their world almost as often as you've saved ours, regardless of the fact that the two may or may not be connected," Sam explained further, mainly for Maddie's benefit.

Maddie nodded. Her eyes met Danny's in the rear-view mirror. He smiled as if to ask, "You ok?" and she returned it as if to say, "Yes, I'm fine." She strained her neck so that she could also see Vlad. He had been quiet during the whole Kitty and Ember thing. "Probably just taking everything in," she thought. His eyes were closed now, but then he opened them, then he closed them again as if it were painful to keep them open. She gave Danny an inquisitive look. He got her message and turned to Vlad.

"Vlad," he said and Vlad opened his eyes, "you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, it's just . . ."

"Yah . . .?" Danny urged him to continue.

Vlad sighed. "It's hard," he admitted, "hard to be in here. I don't know why. It just feels . . . strange."

"Bad memories?" Danny guessed.

"Something like that," Vlad said in response.

They were silent for a moment.

"Good memories?" Danny asked with some hesitation.

Vlad winced. Then turned to meet Danny's eyes with a look that seemed to answer yes and plead for forgiveness for that answer at the same time.

"Don't worry, we're here," was Danny's only response as he brought the Speeder to a stop.

Clock Work's castle loomed before them.

**If you haven't read my other fic, I go on a rant in it at one point about how the ghosts can be friends and enemies at the same time. So that's why I didn't elaborate on that further this time. Anyways, I don't have the next chapter written yet so it could be a while . . . I'm hoping Wednesday? We'll see.**


	4. Chapter 4: Now Playing: TUE

**Yay! I'm updating when I said I would! I'm so proud of me. Yah, moving on, thank you bunches for the great reviews! Glad you like seeing the nice Vlad I created. Um, the only thing I felt the need to address was Kitty. Yah, she was definitely somewhat OC in the last chapter. I couldn't help it and I'm sorry! Anyways, today's chapter can get confusing I must warn you. I switch perspectives a lot and well you'll see. What I think is most confusing I've addressed at the bottom. So yah, enjoy!**

Danny had parked the Specter Speeder right at the entrance to the castle. Once everyone had piled out, he motioned for them to follow him inside. Sam now walked beside him at the head of the group. They were followed by Vlad. Then came Maddie and Jack; Tucker and Jazz brought up the rear.

They soon found themselves in what was familiar to Danny, Sam, and Tucker as the main room of the castle. The circular, glowing thingy that could project images of the future and, as Danny had most recently found out, the past, stood in its usual place. But other than that the room had been redone to look like a movie theater. There were red seats in front of the circular thing (A/N: I don't know what to call it! From now on, I'm calling it the screen okay? Cuz it's gonna be kinda functioning as a movie screen so yah.) and the rest of the room was shrouded in darkness.

"What, no popcorn?" Tucker quipped.

"Danny," Maddie asked, "is your friend the ghost of movies or something? What's his name anyways?"

"His name's Clock Work," Danny answered and was pleased to see Vlad's jaw drop, "he's the ghost of-"

"Time," Vlad finished for him, apparently having recovered from his shock, "the master of it so I've heard." Vlad began looking around the room again as if seeing it in a whole different way.

"You know about Clock Work?!" Danny exclaimed, annoyed because he thought that for once he knew something about ghost legend that Vlad didn't.

"Well, I've never met him," Vlad admitted, "but yes I've read about him, heard stories; I thought it was just a myth."

"What, is there some kind of ghost grape vine I'm not a part of? A monthly newsletter perhaps?" Danny joked.

Vlad just chuckled.

"It's no fair, you know about everything before I do," Danny continued lightheartedly.

"I had a lot of free time on my hands," Vlad explained, "I did research. But, I mean, you're the one who got to meet him."

Danny considered this. "Yah, I guess."

"So where is your friend?"

"I don't think he's coming. I had a feeling he'd just set everything up and then leave."

Sam tugged on Danny's arm. When he turned she pointed to the screen which now looked like a computer screen with words on it. Danny walked over to it. The words on the screen appeared to be a note for him.

DANNY-

SORRY I COULDN'T BE HERE. I WAS CALLED AWAY TO AN EMERGENCY MEETING. JUST HIT THE PLAY BUTTON WHEN YOU'RE READY.

-CW

As soon as Danny finished reading, the note disappeared and a huge side-ways triangle appeared with the word "PLAY" above it.

"Hm, seems simple enough," Sam commented. She had apparently been reading over Danny's shoulder. He turned around to see everyone else had taken their seats in the movie theater chairs, the order being the same as on the Speeder. Sam was still standing with him, he guessed because she was the only one who really knew what was about to happen. He had told her on their way inside. Actually, she had guessed what it was that he was going to show them, but still, it was _his_ plan.

"Yah, almost _too_ simple," Danny replied.

"You're nervous," Sam observed.

"Yah," Danny gave a somewhat shaky nod.

"That's understandable."

"I said no more secrets."

"Yes, you did."

"But this one's so . . ."

"I know."

"What if . . . ?"

"Danny," Sam grabbed his shoulders and looked into his eyes. She lowered her voice to a whisper, "This isn't going to change the way they think about you, okay?"

"Do you trust Clock Work?" Danny asked, he didn't think she did.

"Not as much as I trust _you_," Sam replied, "including the you that they're about to see, the you that fought to choose his destiny instead of letting it choose him."

Danny smiled, "You always know what to say."

Sam returned his smile, "Hey, what else are girlfriends for?"

"Hm, I can think of a few other things . . ." Danny said with a flirtatious grin.

"I'll be waiting in the back row . . ." she said walking away towards her seat with an equally flirtatious look.

Danny looked back at the big circular screen and with a deep sigh pressed the play sign. He then quickly flew to his seat by Sam in the back as the lights dimmed. He leaned into Sam with puckered lips. Sam whacked him on the shoulder.

"Ow," he whispered, "I thought-"

"Are you kidding?" Sam hissed back, "I'm not seriously gonna make out with you _now_!"

"No one's gonna catch us," Danny said with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

Sam shot him a disapproving look. Danny sighed.

"You're right, now's not the time," he said, his voice changing to sound heavily sarcastic, "now's the time to sit back and enjoy watching my parents watch their son go through a huge life-changing ordeal which he didn't even bother telling them about!"

Sam just squeezed his hand in reassurance, communicating that she believed everything would be fine, as images started to fill the screen. Danny held on tight to Sam's hand and slunk down in his seat. It was going to be a long afternoon.

A date flashed first, announcing that what they were about to see took place months ago. Then it was Danny sitting at the kitchen table, his brow knit in frustration at the practice CAT test in front of him. Jazz entered and leaned over him to watch him bubble an answer. Maddie smiled to herself as she watched Jazz make noises to alert Danny as to when he was about to bubble a wrong answer. The moment was cute, but there was something nagging at her that let the smile fade. Somehow she knew this whole thing wasn't going to be easy to watch. That became even more obvious as all in one moment Danny shouted, "Oh, I give _up_!" Jazz sneezed, and a small ghost that appeared to be wearing over-alls and a hair net popped up behind them on screen. And so it began, a simple ordinary moment turned into an exposure of her son's secret life and within mere minutes she was embroiled in his personal crisis, this strange burden he'd chosen to bear without her or really anybody else's help. (A/N: Basically, they're watching TUE episode, you get that right? I'm not gonna describe the whole thing so I hope this works.) She could handle the ghost fights, even when she realized that the ghost he was fighting at one point was Clock Work and the battle was occurring in the very room where she now sat. She immediately thought to make the obvious "I thought he was your friend," comment and decided against it. Something told her that if she just kept watching it would all make sense in the end. It was right after this confrontation with his "friend" that things began to get difficult for Maddie.

Sam felt Danny wince the moment his future evil self appeared on screen. His grip on her hand was so tight she thought he would crush it.

"You okay?" she whispered.

"Hm?" Danny tore his face away from the screen to look into his worried girlfriend's eyes. "Oh, yah, I'll be fine."

Sam used her free hand to rub his arm. Danny slunk down further in his seat and Sam realized he was trying to see his parents.

"You know," Sam whispered, using her head to block his view of them, "I'm sure Clock Work has a way for you to pause it. Maybe we could take a break, you could warn them a little about the rest of it."

Danny considered this. "Nah, why drag it out? I'd rather get it over quick and face the questions and comments at the end."

Sam shrugged and leaned back into her chair.

Just then Maddie made a noise that sounded like a cross between a yelp and a gasp. On the screen Danny had just been knocked out by his future self.

"Why do you _always_ get to be right?" Danny sighed as he jumped up from his chair and walked towards the screen. Sam just giggled in response.

A pause sign appeared over the now-frozen image on the screen without Danny having to do anything. He started a little at that, but shrugged it off and turned to face his family, friends, and Vlad.

"I'm sorry," Maddie began, not waiting for Danny to say anything, "I'm fine, sweetie, you can keep going."

"I hope so," Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "cuz these next few parts are not gonna be very pretty . . . for anyone." He caught Vlad's eye and Vlad nodded to acknowledge that he understood that his part in all of this, the reason they had come here, was about to be revealed.

"Just keep in mind that we're all here now and we're all safe," Danny said with a sigh as he turned back to the screen. It started playing on its own so he returned to his seat.

Somehow, and when looking back she would honestly not know how, Maddie made it through watching her son get verbally and physically abused by this huge icky-looking ghost that claimed to be Danny in the future. When he tossed Danny carelessly into the Ghost Zone, she was almost glad just because they were separated now. She saw the determination in her son's eyes and knew that he would fight that future ghost to the death. That may have been what scared her the most: Danny's absolute disregard for his own personal safety when it came to keeping others safe. Her gladness was short-lived when she realized Danny was now surrounded by several of his enemies. She thought for sure there was no way he was going to make it out of this. She winced as he did with every blow. And then a burst of power so strong it wiped out all the enemies! And it came from Danny!

The wail. He'd almost forgotten about the wail. Danny had been so busy dwelling on the whole evil future Phantom that he'd forgotten about how he managed to win this fight. He slunk down even further in his chair. Sam had his hand again and she gave it a good squeeze.

"You shouldn't be embarrassed," she whispered.

"And yet I am," Danny replied dryly.

Sam gave him a playful nudge and went back to watching the screen. Some of this was very interesting to her as Danny had had to tell her about the parts she wasn't there for. It was different when you actually got to see it all unfold.

Cheesehead. "That's my cue," thought Vlad to himself. Jazz was smart. She had found a way to tell Danny about the portal when she didn't even know exactly what the future ghost had meant. Vlad smiled to himself at Danny's comment about him being subtle. He wondered what Danny was going to find on the other side of that portal. It would have to be something that would shock him that was for sure. Danny had made it clear that this was going to help, but in the way a painful flu shot "helps" keep you healthy. Vlad clenched the arm rests on either side of him and braced himself for what was to come. "Just remember," he tried to calm himself, "it's just a future that's not going to happen. Danny didn't let it happen."

Maddie gawked at the decrepit Vlad on screen. Her shock only grew as he began to explain to the Danny on screen what had happened that led to the creation of the icky future ghost. A combination of Vlad's evil ghost half and Danny's grief stricken half? Whoa, that did not sound good. The shock had settled in to a nice horrible knot in Maddie's stomach. Was this why Danny had shown this to Vlad? To prove that he was a loser without his ghost half? That couldn't be it. Then, future Vlad turned thoughtful and he picked up a picture that she recognized from when they were all in college together. What he said next stunned her and suddenly it all made sense. The Danny on screen summed it up perfectly, "Maybe that's all anybody needs, a second chance."

**Alright, that's all for now! I hope you all were able to use your memories of the Ultimate Enemy episode to follow me through it. I skipped over some stuff, like the Boooooomerang, but it was kind of implied that that was what was on screen when Maddie was thinking the whole "cute moment" thing. At least I hope it was implied.**

**I didn't want to write out the entire episode, that'd be boring, so I put in snippets and then focused on the characters' reactions. Hope you enjoyed it and it made sense! Um, don't know when I'll be able to update again . . . hopefully soon.**


	5. Chapter 5: Remember This?

**Hello all. It's later than I hoped it would be and I apologize. I hate making you wait as I know the feeling all too well. Special thanks to: Artgirl4, Invader Johnny, TPcrazy, Cantdecideonaname, Miriam1, New Ghost Girl, Luiz4200, and goth.one. Oh how your reviews make me filled with joy . . . and joyness! Sorry, couldn't help it. Anyways, Invader Johnny brought up more things I feel the need to explain. Jack I have left out . . . again. His time comes later. I'm workin' on it. Um, as for Clockwork well . . . I don't like to disappoint people. Scratch that, I WILL NOT disappoint. Just read. Oh, and enjoy . . . and joyness lol argh stupid unicorn!**

Vlad didn't know what to think. Or feel. But he felt something. He decided it was hope. Something he didn't even believe he had the right to feel. But the future him on screen sounded so sincere. He watched and hoped as his future self talked things over with Danny. All of a sudden, like a nightmare, he saw his eyes go dark.

"Or I could just destroy you now-"

"No!" The thought became a chant over and over again in his mind. Why would Danny show him this if he was just going to wind up looking like the bad guy again? He sat straight up in his chair and leaned forward. The scene changed to the Nasty Burger. What was with the suspense in this memory? It was as if they were watching a movie! He looked down at his hands clenched on the arm rests of his movie-theater-like chair. Oh, duh. As he was sitting on the end of his row and so was Danny he leaned out and over to try to meet his eyes. Danny glanced at him.

"I didn't-" he lost his words and gave up on trying to come up with new ones, "Did I?"

Danny was surprised by the genuineness he saw in Vlad's features. He honestly seemed to care about whether he had killed him or not. He answered Vlad with a sly smile.

"Just keep watching," he whispered.

"Yah, this is where it gets good," Tucker's head suddenly popped out from his row that was in between Vlad's and Danny's.

"Shh!" Danny hushed him.

They all returned to their positions facing the screen.

"That's not Danny!" on-screen Jazz was yelling.

"Danny," Sam hissd in a girlfriend-reprimanding-her-boyfriend kind of way, "I swear if you sink any further down into your chair, you're gonna wind up stuck in it!" She tried to pull him up using the hand she still had in her grasp. Danny relented a little and sat up a bit.

"It's just . . . the whole me-to-the-rescue part, it's so cheesey."

"It's adorable," Sam corrected him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek to emphasize her point.

"And now the beating begins," Danny remarked as he watched himself fly into the crisis on screen, "I can't watch. Tell me when it's over." He hid his face in his free hand.

"You don't seem to mind it so much when you're in the heat of the battle," Sam pointed out.

"I'm not talking about the me-getting-hurt part, I'm talking about my parents' reactions to it."

"Oh," Sam sat up in her chair a little, "well they seem to be doing okay." She settled back down into her seat and faced Danny. He still had his face hidden. She shrugged and went back to watching the screen. She had to admit, Danny did get pretty banged up in this fight. His parents had probably never witnessed one this bad. But, what are they gonna do? Ban him from fighting evil future ghosts? There was nothing they could do now. They'll just have to deal with it, Sam thought as she watched on-screen Danny pull out the Specter Deflecter and charge his evil self.

"What were your dreams about?" Jazz's smiling face suddenly filled the screen. Then an uncomfortable Sam and Danny came into view beside her. They squirmed and said they couldn't remember.

"What the heck?!" Tucker voiced everyone's feelings. They all turned around in their seats to look questioningly at Danny in the last row.

"Why'd it just change to a different memory like that?" Sam asked, also turning to Danny. He still had his head down, leaning on his hand as if he were dozing off.

"Danny!"

"Huh, what?!" He opened his eyes to see everybody looking at him. Behind them the screen went dark.

"Whoa," Sam said, "I think . . . I think you can control it."

"What? No way," Danny said as if the idea was ridiculous, "What was it doing?"

"It started playing another memory of us after we'd defeated Nocturne, you know, on the dock," Sam said with her eyes locked on Danny's in a you-know-the-one-I-mean kind of way.

"Hm, that's funny," Danny chuckled a bit, "I was just thinking of tha– oh." He broke off and froze.

"Yah, oh!" Sam said in a mocking tone. "Now make it play again," she ordered.

"Uh, I'll try," Danny obeyed, closing his eyes.

An image flickered to life on the screen, but it wasn't where they left off in the evil future memory.

"Nice weather we're having," Danny in his human form said accusingly on screen.

Vlad's ghost half's face filled the screen and Vlad did a face-palm while Danny's parents watched in confusion as on screen Danny and him exchanged words.

Maddie noted how Danny stood in a defensive stance until Vlad admitted he "must resort to humiliatingly desperate measures." Danny relaxed as Vlad took a step towards him and his expression changed to one of humbleness.

"Daniel, I need your help," on-screen Vlad spoke deliberately.

"Well, what d'ya know?" Danny said grinning, "Looks like I can control it."

Vlad turned in his chair to shoot Danny a glare. "You're cruel," he said icily, but his eyes showed he meant it lightly. What they had been watching must be such an unhappy memory for Danny. Vlad decided he could let him have his fun. After all, there wasn't really anything he could do to stop it. He glanced at the cuff on his wrist and the green light blinked back at him. Vlad wondered though, if he could do something right now, would he? It was hard to say.

"Sorry," Danny said, trying and failing to restrain his laughter, "But I just had to share one of my fondest memories."

"Was that when Vlad's rain machine messed up the weather?" Maddie asked.

"Yup, you guessed it," Danny said still smiling. He turned to Sam who was giving him a look of disapproval.

"Uh, but enough messing around," Danny said clearing his throat and trying to be serious, "I'll put it back now."

The last scene of the memory filled the screen once more and this time Danny let it play to the very end, though it took a lot of willpower to stop himself from editing out the parts where he used the ghostly wail. It was just such a strange and potent power that seemed to link him to the future evil self that he defeated with it. He didn't want his parents to know that he was capable of something so . . . violent. He did however end the memory after he gave Clockwork the thermos and went back to talk to Mr.Lancer about his test. The fuzzy-wuzzy moment between him and Jazz seemed too personal to share with Vlad there.

When the screen faded to black, lights filled the room and Danny walked over to stand in front of the screen.

"So, any questions?" he asked hesitantly.

For a while no one said anything.

"Comments?" he prompted again.

Vlad raised his hand and Danny nodded at him.

"I'm glad and somewhat proud that I didn't kill you," Vlad offered evenly.

"Yah," Danny nodded in agreement, "me too. That was kinda the point, you know, I think you won't waste this second chance having seen this. At least, I hope you don't."

Vlad only nodded in response and started to stare off into space.

Maddie spoke up, "Do you . . ." she almost decided against the question, but she couldn't help it, "do you still have that power, that big screaming thing?"

"The ghostly wail?" Danny clarified, "Yah, I do." He looked down at his feet and rubbed the back of his neck.

"And he has taught himself how to harness it more effectively as well," a voice came from the shadows.

Clockwork emerged in his middle-aged man form and floated over to Danny. "Now when he uses it, he doesn't use up all his energy and his able to maintain his form if he so wishes."

"Hey," Danny greeted his friend, "I was hoping you'd show."

"Of course I would," Clockwork explained, turning into his old-man form, "I'm the master of time, do you really think a silly meeting would keep me from having the honor of meeting your family?"

Danny smiled warmly as his parents got up from their chairs and came to shake hands with Clockwork. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz came to stand around Danny.

Maddie took Clockwork's hand easily enough, though it was a tad hard for her, she admitted only to herself. Trusting ghosts was something she had trained herself specifically _not_ to do.

"It's nice to meet you," Maddie said graciously, "I-I don't know what else to say when clearly I owe you so much. You saved me, my family, you helped Danny."

Clockwork held up his hand to stop her. "I thank you for the praise, but really all of the credit goes to your son. I can not create goodness and strength, only give it a chance to grow," he said, winking at Danny.

Danny blushed and looked down. Sam nudged him and laughed a bit.

"And you think he could handle his parents meeting Frostbite," she murmured to Tuck, but loud enough so that Danny could hear her.

Tucker laughed and smiled, "You're right, he'd blush so hard, his hair would even turn pink!"

Sam and Jazz laughed in agreement. Danny shot Tucker a glare, but then smiled and turned back to his parents and Clockwork.

"Well, we better get going," he said, "I'm only supposed to keep Vlad for a few hours."

"Oh, where is he?" Clockwork asked, "I wanted to meet him as well."

They all turned to see Vlad still seated in his chair, staring off at nothing.

"Crud," Danny said worriedly, "his shrink warned me about this. It's his meds." He walked over to Vlad and approached him slowly.

"Vlad," he called out as if he was trying to wake him up from a deep sleep.

Vlad's head snapped up and for an instant Danny had a flashback of when they'd talked at the prison and Vlad had seemed dead. The thought quickly cleared when Vlad's eyes lit up to show he wasn't lost in a half-dead stupor.

"Sorry about that," he said, rising, "just taking it all in."

Clockwork appeared next to Danny.

"Ah, you must be him then, the master of time," Vlad greeted him.

"And you must be the notorious Vlad Plasmius a.k.a Masters."

Vlad winced, "Wishing I could say otherwise, but yes."

Clockwork offered his hand and Vlad shook it with a weak smile.

"I have only one piece of advice for you," Clockwork said leaning in and changing into his child form, "and it is this: You have choices to make and you have people to help you make them."

Clockwork stopped with his face just inches from Vlad's, "Don't mess it up."

**Next chapter may be up as early as tomorrow afternoon! Bye for now.**


	6. Chapter 6: It Takes Heart

**Yay! The next chapter! And it's jam-packed in my opinion! Thanks to my reviewers! Love y'all! Enjoy!**

Danny expected the ride home to be silent. First of all, he figured everyone had had enough of eachother for one day. His dad had barely said a word to anyone and _both_ of his parents continued to ignore Vlad. He could hear Tuck and Jazz in the back of the Speeder arguing about some computer program or something. It was odd that Sam seemed to be the only one whose mood had improved since his little field trip had begun. She stared straight out at the Ghost Zone passing by with a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. He had a pretty good idea of what she was thinking about and knew he'd finally have to deal with her question when they got some alone time.

Then there was the fact that what they had all just seen at Clockwork's was weird and needed to be . . . digested. And lastly, he thought that everyone had to be just as tired of sharing as he was. However, he was wrong.

"You know, you skipped the best part of that memory," Vlad suddenly said, "or at least I thought it would have been the best part for you."

"What?" Danny didn't know what Vlad was talking about and was trying to stealthily maneuver the Speeder through the Zone, hoping to avoid any embarrassing conversations with his ghostly acquaintances _this_ time around.

"The whole weather fiasco," Vlad clarified, "I would have thought that the part where you finally managed to duplicate your form would have been most exciting for you. Although, it's possible that it wasn't your first time, just the first time I saw you do it."

"Oh, yah, actually that was pretty sweet," Danny admitted, "it was the first time I managed to make four." He was confused as to why Vlad would bring it up so he decided to continue the conversation, "What'd you think when you saw that?"

"I was proud, though I had no right to be," Vlad gave a sigh, "you did it without my help, like I knew you would eventually."

Vlad's words hung in the air.

"So, let me get this straight," Maddie suddenly chimed in and leaned forward so she could rest her arms on the back of the seat Danny shared with Sam and Vlad. "_You _could duplicate yourself way before Danny could," she said looking at Vlad. He nodded, the surprise at her finally addressing him apparent in his eyes as well as the fear of where she was going with this. She turned to Danny, "But _you_ got that whole ghost wail thing." Danny nodded as well, also showing confusion as to where this was going.

"So who was more powerful?"

Oh . . . there. That's where this is going. Danny didn't know if he should answer. It would be the right thing to do. Vlad shouldn't have to explain himself . . . yet. But part of him really wanted to hear Vlad's answer.

"Well, I don't know if it's something you can measure . . ." Vlad started.

"I think what she _really_ wants to ask is who would win when we . . . you know, fought," Danny said carefully. He met his mom's eyes in the rear-view mirror. She knew he was unhappy with her for asking her question, which he was correct in interpreting, and gave an apologetic look, but still waited for an answer.

"Oh," Vlad simply said, his eyes widening in understanding.

"You don't have to answer," Danny began, but Vlad cut him off.

"No, no, I want to, now let's see," he thought for a moment. When he started talking again his speech was simple, casual, and seemed genuine. "When we first met in battle, I'd had my abilities for years while Danny had had his for but a few . . . months, was it?" He continued without waiting for an answer, choosing his next words carefully, "One would think it would have been a really unfair fight and yet . . . he won."

"I didn't win," Danny insisted.

"Okay, so it was a truce," Vlad recanted, "And it was temporary. So we met again . . . and again. Each time can be counted as either another draw . . . or a win for Danny. They certainly can't be called _my_ victories since whatever harebrained scheme I had going at the time ultimately failed."

"True, but-" Danny tried to interrupt, but Vlad read his mind.

"But I constantly told you I was the more powerful one-"

"And you didn't believe it?" Danny pressed.

"I may have, and yet . . . well this is what I was going to say before about measuring it, you had some other type of power that I didn't, something I couldn't weaken no matter how hard I tried," Vlad paused, unknowingly building dramatic tension. "You had, and still have, heart," he finally finished.

Everyone was silent as they once again absorbed what had been said.

"Whoa," Danny finally broke the silence, "whatever it is they've got you on, it must be pretty powerful. Wouldn't your shrink call that a breakthrough?"

Vlad chuckled, "Perhaps, but can't I get some of the credit?"

"Sure, take as much as you want," Danny said, his tone playful now. He flashed Vlad a smile.

Vlad returned it and said, "Thanks."

Sam gave Danny's knee a squeeze and when he looked at her she smiled too. Even Maddie was smiling at them as the Specter Speeder emerged from the Ghost Zone and they sat in silence for the rest of the ride home.

Back at the house everyone went up from the lab to walk Vlad to the front door where a car was waiting for him. Danny stopped when they reached the door.

"See ya next time?" he asked Vlad, referring to his next scheduled "session" with Danny as he was supposed to have one every other day.

"I don't know if I can survive another, but sure, why not? I've got nothing to lose," he answered playfully.

Danny smiled, "I promise we'll stay out of the Ghost Zone this time and do something normal."

"That sounds good to me, well," Vlad all of a sudden seemed to get awkward, "thanks." He held out his hand.

Danny was surprised at the gesture, but he took Vlad's hand and shook it. Their eyes met and then they quickly looked away. It was just . . . weird and would take some getting used to. Danny opened the door. Flashes of light assaulted Vlad as he stepped out onto the front stoop.

"Aw crud," he heard Danny mutter behind him. Then Danny stepped out with him and got between him and all the reporters.

"Look," Danny stated authoritatively, "don't bother him or else." With the last two words he let his eyes glow green. This silenced them all, but they stayed put. "Let him leave and then we'll talk," he instructed.

The reporters parted like the Red Sea.

Vlad gave a half-laugh, "You certainly handle them better than I ever did." With a grateful smile over his shoulder he walked through the press and got into the car waiting for him which promptly sped off.

The reporters immediately bombarded Danny with questions. Danny raised his hands and began to talk.

"I've only one statement and that is: This is private and off-limits." The reporters seemed to wilt. "For now," he added. With that, he disappeared back into the house and left the press anguished, which is how he liked it. He turned to his family and friends.

"Thanks to all of you," he said, "I couldn't have done any of that without your support."

Maddie immediately came forward and hugged him. "You really are special, Danny, I wouldn't have believed it was possible, but you brought out that part of him that we went to college with. You make us so proud."

"Thanks, mom," Danny said, embarrassed as usual, but he returned the embrace.

His dad was next. He too hugged Danny and then knelt down to say to his face, "Son," he began in a tone so serious Danny didn't believe it was coming from _his_ dad, "I admit I'm not ready to talk to him yet, but you . . . you keep at it. You're a good influence on him."

"Thanks, dad, and I understand," Danny responded with a trusting smile.

"Well, I say it's time for a well-deserved lunch," Jack said, standing up, his voice returning to normal.

"I'll go make sandwiches," Maddie said, heading to the kitchen.

"I'll help," Jazz said following her.

Sam approached Danny. Jazz saw this and grabbed Tucker, pushing him into the kitchen with her.

"So," Sam started, "you were thinking about those dreams we both couldn't remember."

"Uh, yah," Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck, "you know, just trying to find a happy place while that horrific memory played."

"You finally gonna tell me what yours was about?" she asked, ignoring his attempt to make light of the conversation.

When he hesitated to answer her, she insisted, "Oh come on, you got to see mine, it's only fair!"

"It was the same," he said in a small voice.

"What?!" Sam said with disbelief.

"Our dreams, they were practically identical, you and I were together and-"

"That's just . . ." Sam searched for the right word.

"Amazing, makes it feel like it was meant to be," Danny suggested.

"I was actually gonna say creepy," she teased, "but that works too." She put her arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her waist.

"I think you owe me a kiss," he said.  
"I probably do." They leaned into eachother and their lips met in a sweet kiss that each felt down to their toes.

"Your adjective wins," she said when they parted, "amazing."

"Sandwiches!" Maddie called out, breaking up the moment. But the two continued to look into each other's eyes as they linked hands and walked into the kitchen.

Later that night, Danny held a meeting at the kitchen table about what was going to happen during Vlad's next visit. He explained to his parents that they wouldn't be needed so they went down to the lab to do work while Danny addressed his best friends and sister.

"Does that sound okay to everyone?" he asked when he had explained what they were doing next time.

They all nodded back.

"It's just," Sam began, "Do you really think he'll be . . . okay with that?"

"I don't know," Danny admitted, "but we'll see."

"He seems to trust you," Jazz said confidently.

"Yah," Sam agreed, "and you're certainly asking for _a lot_ of trust."

They all just laughed at that.

**Haven't written the next chapter yet, though I know what's gonna happen evil smile. Sorry, but I don't know when I will get it done. :( Hopefully Wednesday night?**


	7. Chapter 7: Get Hairapy

**Yah, I said Wednesday and if it wasn't for the fact that Doc Manager was down last night, you would have gotten this Wednesday! So there. Now for some Q&A:**

**Artgirl4 – Yes, this could be considered an event that happens after my first fic, but I didn't want to call it the sequel cuz then people who didn't read CFD might not have looked at it. Besides, I was thinking something more along the lines of another dinner with the parents only different for the sequel, you know?**

**New Ghost Girl – I agree and there's more of an answer to your comment at the end so be sure to look there. Oh and I love how you call him Vladdieh, that's so perfect!**

**Invader Johnny – Jack's chapter is approaching, if you're still wondering about him.**

**Luiz4200 – Vlaerie . . . huh. She just may come in handy. I hadn't thought of her yet, but now I will. Thanks!**

**CDON – Glad you decided to stick around. We would all have missed you dearly.**

**Thanks to everyone else as well!**

Vlad got out of the car to find Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz all lounging on the steps to Fenton Works. Immediately he got that feeling you get when you walk up to people and you can tell that they were just talking about you. "They probably were," he reminded himself, "and what did it matter?" Of course they were going to discuss him. He had to be discussed. Him and his "condition." Vlad found himself wishing that one day he would be in on their discussions. Maybe one day he'd be part of their team. Whoa! Where did that come from? Vlad forced himself to remember the reality of his situation and decided not to think that hard about things like that anymore.

"So what are we doing?" he asked, hoping his tone was able to successfully mask the weird thoughts running through his mind.

"Waiting for you," Danny answered as he hopped up from his place on the front stoop. His friends and sister followed his lead as he began walking down the street away from his house. "Come on," he said casually and with a wave of his hand, "we're going to the mall."

"The mall," Vlad questioned, falling into step with Danny at the head of the herd of teenagers.

"Yah," Danny replied, still casual, "I figure we can just chill today."

"Chill?" Vlad echoed.

"It's a whole new concept to you, isn't it?" Danny said with a grin.

"No, I did plenty of chilling in my teen years, thank you very much," Vlad said almost defensively, "It's just . . ."

"Yeeeees . . ." Danny drew the word out as if to encourage Vlad to question his judgment.

"Nothing," Vlad responded, taking a deep breath, "You're in charge. You think I should chill, I'll chill."

Danny shared a knowing look with his friends that Vlad didn't catch.

They walked in silence for a while until Vlad suddenly broke it.

"Hm, that's strange," he said.

"What?" Danny asked.

"Not one Danny Phantom billboard," Vlad pointed out, "no poster, no painted bench, nothing, except of course for the statue. But I thought the town would have your face _everywhere_ and there's not so much as a toothpaste ad."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Danny exclaimed in mock-recollection, "Tuck, take a note, remind me to call Crest and tell them that if I'm not in their next commercial, I'm switching brands." Having ended his little performance, Danny shot Vlad a come-on-do-you-really-think-that-sounds-like-me? look.

"Ha, ha, very funny," Vlad replied dryly, "Seriously, what gives?"

"I don't _like_ the attention, Vlad. Maybe I wanted it at one point, but now that I have it, it's just annoying. I did enough interviews to get the press off my back and then tried to pretend like nothing happened. I like my privacy and the world seems to be respecting that. For now."

Vlad made a noise at this, sort of like a snorting laugh type thing.

"What?" Danny said, raising an eyebrow.

"You never cease to amaze me," Vlad said in a light, wistful kind of way.

"Um, thanks?" Danny said with both eyebrows going up now in a somewhat surprised manner.

"Um you're welcome," Vlad said as if the three words were all one saying.

At this point they were now in front of the mall so they all went in. There weren't a whole lot of people inside. The town is small and it was a really nice day to be outside instead of in a stuffy mall. Danny was thankful for this because that meant less fans to run into. As they continued to walk, he realized people were indeed recognizing him. They were pointing and whispering, yet no one approached him. Danny found this odd as the people of his town weren't usually shy with him. "Maybe it's all just finally dying down," he thought hopefully, "I mean, I've _got_ to have given every single person in town an autograph, by now." Maybe even _two_ autographs per person. One's always "for their friend." They were on eBay. He knew. He had checked.

All of a sudden it hit him: Vlad. They were staying away because of Vlad. He looked over at Vlad, who was walking to his left. He looked pretty uncomfortable. "Duh, of course going out in public would be difficult for _him_, if it is for _me_!" Danny thought, feeling stupid. "Alright, time to let the cat out of the bag and get this mission over with," he decided as they neared their destination: Hair Cuttery.

Danny stopped in front of the outlet and, as if on cue, his team did too, surrounding Vlad.

"Why are we-" Vlad began and then it hit him. "Oh no, no," he started to panic, looking around at the teens with pleading eyes, "I refuse! You really expect me to-?"

But his protests were ignored and the teens pushed and pulled him into the hair salon.

Maddie sat in the kitchen fiddling with yet another of Jack's attempts at making ghost weaponry. All of a sudden she heard the front door open which had to mean that the kids were back. With Vlad. Sure enough, she could hear excited voices floating in from the living room.

"Hang on," she heard Danny's voice clearly as he made his way to the kitchen, "I'll get some ice!"

"How'd it go, sweetie?" she asked when he entered.

Danny laughed as he went to the fridge and grabbed a few cubes of ice. "Well, he got a little _too_ into it, I guess."

"What do you mean?" Maddie inquired, staring at the ice skeptically.

Danny laughed again, "Come see for yourself."

She followed him into the living room where she found Vlad sitting on their couch with Sam sitting next to him on one side and Tucker and Jazz on the other. Sam seemed to be doing something to Vlad's ear that was making him wince in pain.

"What are you guys do-" she began but had to stop when Sam turned to look at her and her hands moved to reveal a small and shiny silver ring going through the top of Vlad's ear.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Maddie stammered with her jaw on the floor.

"Is it that bad?" Vlad whined.

"Bad? It's not bad at all," Sam said excitedly. "Danny-" she began just as he brought over the ice and held it out in front of her. "Ah, thanks," she said snatching a piece and holding it as close to Vlad's earring as she could get it.

Vlad let out a hiss through his teeth.

"This should numb it a little," Sam explained, "Man, I wish my parents would just cave already and let me get a piercing. They know I'm gonna do it anyways when I turn eighteen." She eased the ice back a bit. "It's looking good, seriously, it's gonna be fine," she assured Vlad.

"How did this happen?" Maddie asked incredulously, "I mean, why? What made you-?" She couldn't even finish.

"Wow," Danny commented, "You would think _I_ was the one who put a hole in _my_ ear."

Maddie shot Danny a menacing don't-you-ever look.

"It wasn't my idea," Danny said with a shrug, "I was only in charge of the hair and clothes."

Maddie returned her gaze to Vlad. Now she realized the other stuff. His hair for one, was cut short and spiky. Longer than a buzz cut, but still way shorter than it had been, considering he had once sported a freaking pony tail. And his facial hair had been removed completely, save for a bit of stubborn stubble. His clothes were different too. The jeans were more faded and in-looking. His clean-collared shirt had been replaced by a plain t-shirt and over that was a plaid long-sleeved shirt that was unbuttoned. Maddie realized she was gawking when Vlad started talking, trying to explain about the earring.

"I don't know what came over me," he said, sounding regretful, "I was on such a high after the hair cut and then trying on all the clothes . . . and there was this song that was playing at practically every store we went to . . . something about cutting your hair and changing your name-"

"Cuz we all just wanna be big rock stars?" Tucker finished for him.

"Yah, that's the one!" Vlad said, looking excited, but then his smile faded as he got up and went to the mirror on the wall.

"I don't know, it was stupid I guess," he said with a sigh as he studied his ear in the mirror and then ran his fingers over his short hair.

"I'm not saying it's stupid," Maddie said defensively, "it's just . . . different."

Vlad laughed at that, "Well, yes, very."

"But that's the point," Danny cut in, "you're starting over. If you're going to be a different person, you have to dress differently too. The point of today was to let you play around with what kind of different person you want to be. I like what you came up with and I think the earring's a nice touch."

"Um, thanks," Vlad said.

"Um you're welcome," Danny replied, mimicking Vlad's response from earlier that day. They shared a smile, and then Danny looked at his watch.

"Your ride should be here soon," he said, walking Vlad to the door.

"Oh and just a warning, come well-rested next time. You might even want to drink a Red Bull."

Vlad gave him a confused look.

"I can tell the mall trip wore you out and that was supposed to be leisurely so imagine what I have in mind when I say that your next session is gonna require a lot of _youthful_ energy."

"Bring it on," Vlad responded, jokingly, "I'm dressing like a teen, so I might as well act like one."

Danny smiled, pleased with Vlad's enthusiasm, but also because he was smug with the idea of his once most-feared enemy acting like a teenager.

**Alright before I let you down in the next chapter I'm gonna go ahead and admit that I'm not writing out all of what happens at the next session. If you haven't figured it out already, it's the go-carts I mentioned it the summary. I'll sum it up, but I couldn't find a whole lot to say about it. Plus, New Ghost Girl is right; it's time to bring in the baddies! Next chapter's gonna be serious as I feel the need for a bigger conflict since Vlad is doing so well with his therapy. Anyways, I'm thinking Friday . . . but we'll see! Oh and the song Vlad was talking about is "Rockstar" by Nickelback if you didn't already know. Which you probably did. That song was like all the radio played for weeks over the summer!**


	8. Chapter 8: Rumors and Trust

**Alright, I'm getting mixed responses to the whole go-cart thing and to be honest I was having second thoughts about it myself. I was only gonna keep them in (and as I said before it was going to be really short) because I had mentioned them in the summary and I didn't want to let anybody down. But the truth is I don't even know what I was gonna do with them exactly. So yah, sorry to those of you who really wanted them, but when I tried to write about them it was just too fluffy and the story really needs to move on past Vlad's new fun experiences.**

**I need to also say that the point of Danny taking Vlad out to do things like go-carts is not to make him act like a teenager; it's to make him relax, get his mind off bad stuff, and just have some fun. Vlad said he was going to act like a teenager (but he was partly joking) and we all know he can't pull it off which is why Danny was all smug. So don't worry, I will keep him as in-character as I can with all that's about to happen.**

**One last thing for Invader Johnny, the "um"s are hard to explain. Like if you could hear the way they were supposed to sound, it would make sense. See, they each said "um" twice, but only one of those was genuine, the other was a mocking response to the other's "um". I agree that it's somewhat out of character for Vlad to say "um," but at the same time he's not as confidant as he used to be in his speech. As for Danny, I thought he did say "um" sometimes . . . but maybe that's just me.**

Jack was working in the lab with Maddie, one of his favorite things to do, you know, aside from eating fudge. He was making adjustments to his latest creation, though he wasn't quite sure yet what it was supposed to do, when Danny came tramping down the stairs. Jack knew that his son had been out all day with his friends and Vlad, something about go-carts and "revitalizing Vlad's being" and other psychological stuff that made Jack's head hurt. As if there weren't already enough of that coming from his daughter, now Danny seemed to be talking about it too. But Jack knew that Danny would remain true to his real passion: ghost fighting. Wouldn't he?

"Hey Sweetie, how did today go?" Maddie asked, glancing up from the weapon she was working on.

Danny hopped up to sit on the work table she was at and responded with a shrug. "It was okay. I don't know how much good it did for Vlad, but Tuck, Sam, and I sure needed it. Apparently, I had them really worried and stressed, you know, since Vlad came back. They needed to unwind."

"Well, that's good," Maddie said as she continued to fool around with the ecto-gun on the table, "Did they both go home, Sam and Tucker?"

"Yah, they've both got stuff to do tonight," Danny answered.

"So does that mean you need someone to go on patrol with you tonight?" Maddie looked up at her son and tried to tell him what she meant with her eyes.

"Well, I can just go by my-oh." Danny got the message as Maddie tilted her head in his dad's direction.

"Or Dad could come with me?" Maddie nodded to affirm that this was the right thing to do. Danny gave her a weak smile, but did as he was told. "Hey Dad," he said to make Jack turn around from where he was working across the room, "you wanna come with me on patrol tonight? We could take the RV."

"Really?" Jack's face lit up and Danny knew he was doing a very good thing by inviting him. He nodded.

"We can try out the new RV upgrades!" Jack continued excitedly, "Oh, you're gonna love 'em!"

"I'm sure I will," Danny replied giving his dad the sincerest smile he could manage.

Later that night, Danny sat in the passenger seat of the RV feeling grateful that so far it had been a ghost-free evening. His dad had finished showing him all the latest upgrades to the RV and now they sat in silence. Danny knew that his dad was probably hoping for the exact opposite of what he was hoping for. Just the two of them fighting off an evil ghost probably sounded good to his dad, but Danny thought it would be . . . well, awkward. After the last couple days, you would think he'd be an expert at awkward situations, but this one still made him anxious. His dad wasn't as good a shot as his mom and sometimes did make silly mistakes, though Danny would never call him incompetent like Vlad used to. It was just that he was used to, for the most part, fighting solo and he really didn't think his dad would go for the whole side-kick thing like Sam and Tuck did.

Danny watched as the digital clock on the RV's dashboard changed to 11:00pm. He opened his mouth to say that they could go home now and instead a blue mist came out. Perfect. Raising his head to see if his dad noticed, which he hadn't, Danny scanned the area and spotted two figures in the ally across the street from where they were parked. He groaned inwardly as he recognized the silhouettes of Skulker and Ember. 

Jack looked over at his son and noticed he was staring intently at something out the window. Leaning closer, Jack saw that it was two of Danny's enemies.

"Isn't that-" he began, but Danny cut him off.

"Shh, yes." Danny was silent for a few seconds as he studied the two figures in the ally. "They're just talking," he observed. He was quiet for a few more moments. "Arguing actually . . . typical. But I think . . . I think they're looking for . . . me."

All of a sudden he watched as Ember's eyes widened and smacked Skulker on the shoulder. Then she pointed to the RV and shoved Skulker in its direction.

"They've spotted us," Jack pointed out as Ember made her way purposefully to the RV with Skulker close behind her. "What's our plan?" He looked at Danny.

Danny could see the excitement shining in his Dad's eyes, but Jack was trying really hard to keep it from reaching the rest of his features. "This isn't like them," Danny explained carefully, "Something's up." He paused to think for a beat, and then instructed his dad. "We approach with caution, but not threateningly. Skulker's a hunter and if he were hunting me, he'd have his guns cocked and ready. Since he doesn't I think we're safe to go in with our weapons down too. But things can change fast so be ready."

Jack gave a curt nod, his face all business. Danny nodded back and changed into his ghost form. They got out of the RV and met Skulker and Ember in the middle of the street. Danny folded his arms in front of his chest and put on a questioning but menacing look. Over his shoulder, he could tell his dad had stopped a few steps behind him, covering him. Maybe he could adjust to the role of side-kick.

"Looking for someone?" Danny asked icily. 

"As a matter of fact, we were looking for you, whelp," Skulker responded with a slight grin.

"Mission accomplished then," Danny said flatly.

"Not quite, Dipstick," Ember spoke up, "that's actually only part of the mission."

"Really? Does the other part involve me kicking your butts back into the Ghost Zone?"

"Hey, there's no need for _that_," Skulker said testily, "We were sent to warn you about something. We're trying to do you a favor!"

"How nice of you," Danny continued in a guarded tone.

"Yes, it _is_," Skulker said, raising his voice and coming forward a bit, but Ember pushed him back.

"Both of you, quit it!" she shouted, looking back and forth at the death glares the two were exchanging. She turned her scowl on Skulker, "Just tell him already so we can go home!"

"Why do _I_ have to explain it? You tell him," Skulker talked back, which of course did not go over too big with Ember. Her hair flamed as she began screaming in his face about how he can't boss her around. He talked back again and just like that they were embroiled in an argument, forgetting about Danny.

Danny sighed and uncrossed his arms with a roll of his eyes.

"Hey!" he shouted over their squabbling. They stopped and turned to face him. "It's been a long day. Can you please just get on with it? You can argue later!"

Now the two ghosts exchanged worried looks as they knew the next words out of their mouths would have to be the message or Danny would lose it.

"There's been . . . rumors," Skulker began slowly.

"Rumors that we're pretty sure are true, otherwise we wouldn't be here," Ember explained.

Since they seemed to get stuck here Danny coaxed them on with an "Okay . . ."

Ember sighed with a roll of her eyes meant for Skulker since it was clear _she_ was going to have to be the one to say it. "There's rumors that the Fright Knight plans to wake the Ghost King," she stated plainly.

"What! Why?" Danny asked with his eyes wide.

"The rumor is that he says that the King was his best ally and therefore his best chance at getting to do anything worth-wile," Ember further explained.

"This is not good," was all Danny could say.

"Well duh," Skulker put in, "why do you think we-" 

Ember silenced him with a look.

"There's more," she stated.

"Joy," Danny said dryly.

"He also heard about a future where _you_ were his master. Do you know anything about that?"

"I might," Danny replied evasively.

Ember rolled her eyes but continued, "So he wants to pit you against the King to see which of you is more worthy of his servitude."

"Great." 

"Oh and he wants revenge. On Vlad," Ember added hastily.

"Even better."

"Is it true then?" Skulker spoke up.

"Is what true?" Danny asked, turning his flashing green eyes on Skulker.

"That you're trying to rehabilitate Vlad," Skulker said, unfazed.

Danny sighed, "Yes."

Skulker raised a metal eyebrow, "How's that going?"

"Fine. Although this isn't going to help," Danny said, growing annoyed as the impact of the news set in. "Argh! We so do not need this right now!" he complained.

"There's some good news," Ember offered.

Danny looked at her hopefully.

Ember took a deep breath. "This time, we're offering our help before anything goes down. And by we I mean a lot of the ghosts back in the Zone, not just Skulker and I. So if you've got a plan . . . we're willing to be a part of it." She finished with a small smile.

Danny smiled back with a smug look on his face.

"It's not cuz we like you or anything," Ember said, quickly returning to her usual feisty self, "it's just that we don't want to be ruled by the Ghost King and _a lot_ of us don't want to see the Fright Knight serving you either." The way she emphasized the word "a lot" made it clear to Danny that she included herself in that category.

"That's . . . understandable." Danny seemed to get lost in his thoughts for a moment. He looked back at Skulker and Ember. "Well, thanks," he said and turned to walk back to the RV.

"Wait!" Ember yelled, the annoyance in her voice only too obvious.

"What?" Danny asked, faking innocence as he turned around.

Ember crossed her arms and gave him a look that said, "You know _what_."

"Don't worry," he said coolly, "I'll let you know the plan when it's time. I know where to find you."

"As opposed to telling us _now_?" Ember wanted to know.

"I haven't come up with anything yet, I have to check on some stuff with some people," Danny answered vaguely.

"He doesn't believe us," Skulker decided.

"No," Danny was quick to insist, "I just . . . look just trust me ok?"

"Why should we?" Skulker asked, raising one eyebrow again.

"I'm the good guy, remember?" Danny teased and with that he turned around and got back into the RV as did Jack.

"You okay?" Jack asked his son.

"Honestly, no," Danny said with a sigh. He looked at his dad's confused, but trying to be comforting expression. Danny half-smiled, "I guess I've got some more explaining to do."

Jack put his hand on Danny's shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. 

"Yes, you do."

**Before you ask, no, this was not Jack's chapter. I'm very sorry to say that I don't see time to write happening until after Easter weekend:( Hopefully, that won't be true, but I don't want to promise anything after this chapter took me all weekend instead of just Friday night like I thought it would!**


	9. Chapter 9: Busted

**I'm not dead yet! (It's the truth and a Spamalot/Monty Python and the Holy Grail quote!) Sorry it took me so long. But here it is! Yay! Um, a lot of peeps are wondering if Dark Danny is gonna be in this. My answer? Sorry, no. I have my hands full with the Fright Knight and Ghost King. And don't forget the focus is supposed to be on Vlad.**

"Well, this is . . . inconvenient," Vlad said evenly as he leaned back against one of the tables in the lab, musing over the news Danny had just relayed to him.

"Tell me about it," Danny replied from where he sat on the last step of the lab stairs with his head in his hands.

After many fake smiles and a few not-completely-honest words, he had convinced his parents that everything was fine and that there was nothing he could tell them about the situation right now. They went to bed, assuming he would too. Meanwhile Danny had flown straight to the prison facility Vlad was in and, well, for lack of a better term, busted him out. "It's not a crime," Danny had told himself, "I'm just borrowing him for a few hours. And it _is_ kind of an emergency." Vlad still had his cuff on that prevented him from changing form and he knew that Danny fully intended on putting him back in the facility when they were done talking.

So now they were here in the lab with Danny having explained everything about the possible Fright Knight and Ghost King crisis just moments ago.

Vlad looked deep in thought. "You say you told Skulker and Ember that you would come up with a plan?" he suddenly asked.

Danny sat up. "Well, yah, kinda," he answered.

"And do you have one?" Vlad asked with an eyebrow raised.

Danny looked away from him and stared at the tarp that covered the Specter Speeder parked in the corner. "Not the kind they want," he finally answered. He turned back to Vlad and gave him an I'm-about-to-ask-you-to-do-something-I-know-you're-not-gonna-want-to-do look.

Vlad's eyes went wide. He had recently developed a fear of that look. "You didn't just bring me here to talk, did you?" he asked as it dawned on him.

Danny smiled. "We could have talked at the prison."

Vlad sighed. "What are we doing?"

Danny jumped up, still smiling. "We're gonna make sure the rumors are true. And to do that we've got to talk to a ghost we can actually trust," he said as he walked over to the Specter Speeder and pulled the tarp off.

Vlad sighed again and rubbed his forehead. "And who would that be? Please don't say Clockwork. He's so . . ." His voice trailed off as he realized Danny was still giving him that look.

"It's not Clockwork," Danny offered.

Vlad just stared at him with pleading eyes.

"Okay, it's Frostbite," Danny finally confessed.

Vlad's eyes got even bigger.

* * *

Maddie isn't a bad mother. Sure, she hadn't figured out that her own son had gotten ghost powers and had started using them to kick massive ghost butt. But still. She knew when something was up. And man, something was definitely bothering Danny when him and Jack came home from patrolling that night

But she had played dumb. She'd taken his promise that he'd explain when they needed to know. She had acted like she was going to bed. But now she snuck downstairs in her pajamas to find Danny and make him tell her what was going on. The half-ghost secret had slipped past her and this time she was not shrugging the feeling off that Danny was hiding something from her as "hormones" or "just being a teenager." Instead she was going to confront him.

Her original plan had been cookies and milk. You know, butter him up a bit to make him feel like opening up to her. Of course that all changed when she got downstairs and heard voices coming from the lab. Especially when she recognized one of those voices as Vlad's. Her whole body tensed, fearing the worst. She relaxed when she heard Danny's voice and it sounded friendly. It wasn't that she didn't believe that Vlad could be rehabilitated. She just didn't trust him yet.

Maddie cautiously peered down the basement stairway. The light was on and she couldn't see anyone. She slowly crept down the stairs and peered into the lab and saw . . . no one. Where'd they go? Maybe it had been her imagination. She relaxed and looked around the lab.

All of a sudden the Specter Speeder started up, almost causing her to jump in surprise. "Where are they going?" The thought had barely entered her mind when she suddenly made up her mind. It didn't matter where they were going, but _she_ was going too! The door was still open. She hopped in and slipped between the second and third rows of seats. The door closed behind her a second later. She popped her head up over the seats to see Danny in his ghost form in the pilot seat and Vlad next to him. Neither seemed to have noticed her sneak on. Perfect. She crouched down and got comfortable just as Danny turned the Speeder intangible to get it out of the lab. She could see out a window despite her awkward position and through it she could see nothing but the night sky.

"There should be a portal right over here," she heard Danny say aloud to Vlad. She could barely hear him since he didn't have to talk that loud for Vlad to hear him and didn't know there were certain other people in the vehicle who wanted in on the conversation. Maddie thought for sure she wouldn't be able to follow the conversation when Vlad turned on the AC and the sound of it muffled whatever comment Danny made about him doing that. However her luck changed.

"Here," Danny said holding out a Fenton Fone to Vlad as he put one on himself.

"What's this for?" Vlad asked even though he had taken it and was following Danny's lead by putting it in his ear.

"In case we get separated," Danny stated plainly.

"How would we-?"

"I just want to be careful tonight," Danny confessed, "I'll admit that what Ember and Skulker said got to me."

Vlad just nodded.

Maddie smiled as she adjusted her own Fenton Fone that she had immediately gotten from a supplies compartment in the Speeder when she saw Danny and Vlad each put one on. This was gonna be interesting. And the best part was, she didn't feel a spec of guilt. Okay, maybe a spec. "But Danny should feel more guilty," she reasoned, "he said no more secrets. Well, what do you call this?" She thought the words as she stared at the back of her son's head as if trying to put them in there. But of course, he remained oblivious.

The Speeder entered the Ghost Zone. Maddie could tell because the night sky had been replaced by the glowing green she had witnessed for the first time only a few days ago.

"Still feel weird to be in here?" Danny asked Vlad casually. Maddie could hear him perfectly now thanks to the Fones.

"In a way, yes," Vlad replied, "but I can't really tell what's causing the giant knot in my stomach, being in here again," Vlad's tone changed to emphasize this last part, "or the idea of facing someone who probably hates my guts with a deep passion."

"Oh, come on, Frostbite's a nice guy," Danny reassured, "I'm sure he'll totally support your whole turning-over-a-new-leaf thing." Maddie got excited when she heard this. Danny had been so mysterious about this Frostbite character. It made her want to meet him. Or at least know more about him since meeting him would require blowing her cover.

"Yes and _I'm sure_," Vlad countered in a sarcastic tone, "that he won't harbor any feelings of hatred at all towards the man who stole his most prized possession numerous times and, let's not forget my worst crime in his eyes, attempting to harm the Great One."

"_Attempting_ to harm?" Danny echoed with a hint of a smile.

Vlad gave Danny a miserable look.

"I'm kidding," Danny was quick to explain, "I know what you mean. And don't you dare call me that."

This made Vlad laugh. "Why not?" he teased, "It's such a _great_ nickname!" Vlad laughed some more at his lame joke.

Danny just smirked. "Man, what do they have you on?"

That made Vlad stop. "Kill-joy," Vlad said dryly.

Danny chuckled. Maddie was trying to make sense of this exchange when she felt the Speeder skid to a stop. "Alright, we're here," Danny said. "There's a jacket in that overhead compartment right there," he instructed Vlad. Maddie panicked for a moment but Vlad was able to get to where the jacket was stored without going near her hiding place. She wondered what he needed the jacket for.

Once the doors to the Speeder were opened, however, it was all too clear. It looked like Antarctica out there! Were they really still in the Ghost Zone? Maddie shivered as Vlad and Danny exited the Speeder and shut the doors, causing a big rush of cold air to crash into her. She crawled over to the window and almost burst out laughing at the sight of Vlad in a fluffy white Fenton jacket. Luckily, she caught herself since she still had the Fone on.

Maddie studied the frozen wonderland as Danny and Vlad trudged through it. Danny wasn't wearing a jacket. Must she remind him about everything? But then she realized that Danny wasn't shivering. If she didn't know any better, she'd say he looked more comfortable in the cold. Her notion was confirmed when she heard Danny chuckle into the Fone, "Cold?"

She could see the look Vlad shot Danny all the way from her window.

"You're not?" he chattered.

Danny took a deep breath of the cold air. "Feels good," he replied.

"Lucky you," Vlad muttered.

So Danny liked the cold. Was this because of his ghost half? Vlad made it sound like it was something else. Maddie pondered over this and smiled to herself. This trip was turning out to be very informative. She hoped Frostbite would show up soon. "Really soon," she thought as she realized that Danny and Vlad were getting too far away for her to see them. They seemed to be heading for some caves. "Well at least I'll still be able to hear them," she thought, trying not to be too disappointed.

All of a sudden Maddie realized she was shivering. A lot. The Speeder had been a comfortable temperature but was quickly becoming ice-cold thanks to the cold snowy weather surrounding it and all she had on were her thin flannel pajama top and bottoms. She rubbed her arms and curled up.

"They won't stay long," she reasoned with herself, "I can handle the cold until they get back." But even as she thought this her teeth began to chatter almost uncontrollably. She thought for sure Danny and Vlad could hear them over the Fones. "I'll be fine," she continued to insist as her eyelids began to droop.

The minutes ticked by with Danny and Vlad apparently walking in silence. She would be wondering about why it was taking them so long to get to where Frostbite was, but she couldn't seem to think straight. The cold was making her drowsy and really . . . dizzy. Her body couldn't take it anymore and she fell over, collapsing into a shivering little ball.

She realized she didn't care about keeping her cover anymore; she didn't care if Danny got mad at her and she never got to meet Frostbite. All she cared about was getting warm. So in a daze and with shaky breath, Maddie pressed the Fone close to her and whispered, "Danny . . . help." Then everything went dark.

Vlad and Danny were just about to enter one of the caves and ask someone if they could possibly see Frostbite when they both stopped dead in their tracks.

"What was that?" they both said at almost the same time.

"It sounded like," Vlad hesitated to say her name, but finally got it out, "Maddie."

"Oh crud," Danny said and took off for the Speeder in a flash, leaving Vlad behind.

He didn't hesitate as he reached the Speeder and threw open the door. He knelt down to the still body on the floor of the vehicle.

"Mom?" he said gently.

**Mwa ha ha! A cliffie! I'm so evil! Don't worry, the next chapter is almost done so it should be up tomorrow.**


	10. Chapter 10: Worry

**Sorry times infinity. I said Thursday and it's Sunday. I could explain what happened, but it really doesn't matter. Here it is. Enjoy it.**

**Oh and I address the whole jacket thing. Can't believe so many people actually caught that!**

"I can not believe she was really with us the whole time!"

"I know! The last thing on my mind was my mom spying on us."

The voices were hushed, but they felt as loud as a jack-hammer to Maddie as she groggily rolled over to escape them. She snuggled under the warmth of the blankets. Wait, warmth? She was warm? The memories of the night slowly made themselves clear. She had passed out from the cold. But she had managed to call for help first. Danny must have come to her rescue. She knew he would. No matter how important his little mission was – the mission! Were they still in the Ghost Zone? Did she still have a chance at meeting the Frostbite ghost? Only one way to find out.

She slowly opened her eyes. White light blinded her from the entrance of the cave where it was reflecting off the snow. She turned back to the darker inside of the cave where the voices had come from and squinted up at Vlad and Danny sitting around a camp fire.

"Well look who's decided to join us," Vlad quipped, "If it isn't Harriet the Spy." He smiled at his obscure reference and sipped something hot from a mug he was holding.

"Mom, how are you feeling?" Danny asked, ignoring Vlad and leaving his place by the fire to kneel beside her bed made up of what looked like really big and fluffy animal furs.

Danny was still in his ghost form. His electric green eyes showed genuine concern as he studied her and Maddie wondered how she could have ever accused the face hovering over her of having no emotion.

She sat up and instantly regretted it when the blankets – or furs? – slid off of her. Even near the campfire, it was cold in the cave.

"Here." Danny handed her a Fenton jacket like the one Vlad was wearing. She looked over at Vlad and was sad to see that he had unzipped his and put the hood down. She laughed, remembering how funny he had looked earlier all bundled up and trudging through the snow.

"You're laughing? Oh god, she's delirious," Danny said half-panicked.

"No, I'm fine," she quickly assured him, though she was still woozy. "It's just that these jackets make Vlad look like a snow bunny." Danny burst out laughing at this. She smiled smugly as she pulled on the fluffy white coat.

"Glad to see her sense of humor's still intact," Vlad remarked dryly and took another sip from his mug. That seemed to remind him of something and he made an "mm" noise before putting his mug down and reaching behind him for something. To Maddie's surprise he held out a thermos (not the ghost-catching kind, but a real one) and a mug.

"Here have some of this," he said to her. She hesitantly took the things from him while he just beamed at her, "It will help."

"What is it?" Maddie asked as she carefully unscrewed the lid to the thermos and sniffed it skeptically.

"Relax, it's hot chocolate," Vlad answered with a chuckle, "It's the only thing that can really warm you up in this frozen wasteland Danny here dragged us to." He jutted his chin out in Danny's direction at the mention of his name.

"Is this really part of the Ghost Zone?" Maddie asked inquisitively, the scientist in her taking over.

"Yes," Danny replied, ignoring Vlad again, "welcome to the land of the Far Frozen." He gave a half-hearted smile and gestured towards the entrance of the cave.

Maddie took a sip of her hot chocolate. "Mm, you're right. This is good," she turned to Vlad and hesitated, finding it hard to get out the next word, "Thanks."

"Oh, no, it wasn't me," Vlad responded somewhat flustered, being both surprised and embarrassed by Maddie's kind words, "Frostbite had someone bring it to us when he found out we were here."

"Frostbite!" Maddie exclaimed. Now fully awakened, she turned to Danny, "Will I get to meet him now?"

Danny shared a look with Vlad. "Uh, Mom, we kinda need to talk first if that's okay. You know, cuz we weren't exactly . . . expecting you."

"Oh right," Maddie said blushing, "I'm really sorry I was spying, sweetie." She looked down sheepishly.

Danny chuckled. Maddie looked up at him confused. "Mom," he said gently, sharing another look with Vlad, "I don't really care about that. It's the whole practically freezing to death in the Speeder filled with a bunch of _these_," he pointed at her coat, "that has us a little worried."

Maddie's eyes went wide and she opened her mouth to say something but no words came. "I- I-," she started, but then shook her head. How could she explain the way her mind wandered whenever Danny was in his ghost form? A mother can't just tell her son he fascinates her, even if it is from a scientific viewpoint. She laughed a little and tried to explain it without freaking Danny out. "I don't know why, but I honestly didn't think to look for one. I was a little . . . distracted." Her eyes bore into Danny's and he could feel the question coming before she voiced it.

"You have some sort of affinity for the cold, don't you?" she asked.

"Hmph," Vlad half-laughed, "A scientist's absent-mindedness."

"Absent-mindedness?" Danny echoed, not ignoring Vlad this time, "Are you saying that you didn't think about being cold because you were too busy thinking about me and how I _wasn't_ cold?"

Maddie gave a little shrug and then a nod.

"Okay then," Danny said still sounding unconvinced, "I guess the only thing to do then would be to satisfy your curiosity." Maddie smiled. "Before you forget to do something else obvious, like breathe," Danny added, causing Maddie to stop smiling and give him a don't-mock-me-well-okay-I-deserve-it look.

Danny stood up and backed away from the camp fire so that he was positioned with the entrance of the cave behind him and Maddie and Vlad in front of him. He cleared his throat and held up his open hands, "Nothing up my sleeves and voila!" A crystal of ice exactly like the one he had once made for Sam appeared floating in the space between his two open palms. He came forward a little and held it out to Maddie.

"Go ahead, take it."

Maddie did. It was cool and slick in her hands. It was ice!

"You have freezing abilities?" she asked amazed.

Danny nodded. Suddenly the cave went dark as a huge figure appeared in the entrance.

"Hours of rigorous training and you use your gift to make ice sculptures?" a deep, rough voice boomed.

Danny turned to see Frostbite step farther into the cave.

"Ha ha, I'm only joking," he said continuing forward, "It's so good to see you again Great One."

Danny held out his hand, "Nice to see you too." As Danny had expected Frostbite ignored the hand and swept him into an enormous (and literal) bear-hug. Maddie's eyes bugged out.

"As always, my people are honored that you come to us in friendship," Frostbite said as he set Danny down. "Although I hear that you have come today for some help with a serious matter as well." He seemed to suddenly realize Maddie gawking at him.

"This must be your mother," he said, giving Danny no chance to respond to anything he had said, "I am so glad to see that she is feeling better. Sorry I couldn't come earlier to help; I was in an important meeting with the royal army. It's so nice to meet you!"

"Mom, this is Frostbite," Danny finally managed to cut in, "Frostbite, this is my mom, Maddie Fenton."

Frostbite extended his hand, er paw, towards Maddie and Danny was relieved when she stood up to shake it warmly.

"It's really nice to meet you too," she said. If she was freaked out at all by Frostbite being well, a polar bear type thing, she hid it well.

"You must be so proud of what your son has accomplished," Frostbite went on in that royal-sounding way he talked. He stopped when he noticed Vlad standing up behind Maddie.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't think we've met," Frostbite said politely and turned to Danny for introductions.

Danny looked taken aback at Frostbite's request. "Um, that's-," he started.

"I suppose you never got to see me in my human form or else Danny's makeover really is that good," Vlad offered.

Frostbite's face clouded with recognition. "The map thief?" He turned to Danny, "Your arch-enemy?"

Danny winced at that, but tried to explain the situation anyways. "Vlad is . . . changing. He's turning over a new leaf." He signaled to Vlad.

"Right," Vlad insisted, "Danny thought a good way to do that with you would be to come and, well, apologize."

Vlad began to sweat under Frostbite's intimidating gaze, despite the below zero temperature. All the attention was on him.

"So . . . I'm sorry. I'm sorry I stole from you. And I'm sorry about the danger my actions put Danny in. You were right. I didn't understand the map's power and Danny does," Vlad spoke slowly and carefully as he had been told to by both Danny and his shrink.

"Hm, well, apology accepted," Frostbite said incredulously, "And I wish you both luck on your leaf-turning venture."

Danny snickered a little at that. He gave Vlad a you-did-well signal and turned to Frostbite.

"Can we talk now?" he asked.

"Right, let's take a walk," Frostbite said and gestured to the cave opening.

"You guys good here?" Danny asked Vlad and Maddie over his shoulder.

"Sure," Maddie said and Vlad nodded.

They sat back down around the campfire as Danny and Frostbite left the cave talking in low voices.

Then came the awkward silence.

Vlad was perfectly okay with this. Awkward silence, in his opinion, was way better than awkward conversation. Leave it to Maddie, of course, to think differently.

"So am I allowed to know what all this is about?" Her question seemed to bounce off the walls of the cave and smother Vlad.

He sighed. "I think Danny will have to explain it. It's a long story."

Maddie nodded, surprising Vlad by accepting his answer.

They let the silence fill the cave again.

"Vlad," Maddie suddenly said, causing Vlad to wince. But she didn't notice. Or if she did, she ignored it. "If you . . . If you were free, would you stick around? I mean would you do things like this with Danny?" Maddie turned to look him in the eyes and Vlad saw something there.

"I- I'm not sure what you mean exactly," Vlad replied. He honestly didn't.

"It's just that Danny may have brought you here to apologize, but I'm just glad he brought _someone_. He tries to do things on his own too often," Maddie explained, the motherly worry in her eyes all too apparent now.

"Oh, that's what you mean," Vlad said solemnly. He took a deep breath and looked down at his mug in his hands. "I don't know what it's like to worry about someone, so I don't know if this will help . . . but I know Danny's strengths and weaknesses well. He doesn't need someone to protect him. It may make you feel better, but ultimately there's always a chance something will happen whether he's alone or not."

Maddie seemed to accept this answer as well.

Luckily, it was only a few more minutes of silence before Danny came back.

"Alright, let's roll," he said, smiling and unaware of the conversation about his safety that had just taken place.

After a quick ride home and taking Vlad back, Danny found himself at home in his bed trying to sleep. Tomorrow he would have to tell his parents everything, which meant there was no way he was getting any sleep tonight.

Maddie lay awake for a while as well. When she did finally fall asleep, it was fitful. For some reason, she kept waking with a start and the notion that Danny was hurt. Vlad had tried his best to reassure her, but Maddie was beginning to think there was no cure for a mother's worry.

**There. Man, I struggled with this chapter! What have I gotten myself into? Argh. Anyways, I'm on break so I'll try to get a lot written this week. I apologize again for making you wait so long.**


	11. Chapter 11: Talking Lots of Talking

**Thanks to all my reviewers: New Ghost Girl, Miriam1, Artgirl4, Invader Johnny, sciencefreak330, Amethyst Ocean, TexasDreamer01, Cantdecideonaname, and goth.one! I'm very grateful for all of you! Here's a nice big chapter to show my appreciation (It was 6 pages on word!).**

Jack, Maddie, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker all sat at the Fentons' kitchen table. Their eyes were going back and forth as each pair was following Danny who was pacing the room. Every now and then he'd stop and look up at them like he was about to say something. But then the words wouldn't come and he'd look down and start pacing again.

It was the morning after that long night which started with his and Jack's encounter with Skulker and Ember and ended with his, Vlad's, and Maddie's little adventure in the Ghost Zone, an off-day for Vlad's sessions, and therefore time to sit his team down and tell them what was up. The only problem was . . . he couldn't figure out where to begin. Everybody knew about his parents' little escapades last night by now, but they were waiting for Danny to explain what was going on and, in his parents' case, what had happened before that now led to this.

Sam got fed up with the pacing and suddenly stood up. She purposefully got in Danny's way so that when he turned to pace in another direction he walked right into her. Having successfully broken his concentration, Sam grabbed her boyfriend by the shoulders and looked into his eyes.

"Enough!" she said as his eyes met hers. He stared at her with a why-me? kind of expression. "Whatever you're trying to say, just say it! It can't be _that_ bad. We can handle it."

Danny flicked his eyes over to everyone else seated at the table and then back at Sam. He spoke quietly so that they couldn't hear him, "I have to explain the whole Ghost King incident to them."

Sam's eyes widened. "Oh," she said, unsure of what else to say. She relaxed her grip on his shoulders so that it was more comforting than restraining.

"Yah," Danny said miserably, "I just . . . don't know where to begin."

Sam stared at the basement doorway behind him, lost in thought. "How about," she said, dropping her hands from his shoulders so she could grab his hand, "you start with what they already know, hear from _them_ first. Maybe that will make it easier."

Danny gave her hand a squeeze and nodded with a smile. "That sounds good. Thanks."

"No problem," Sam said and returned to her seat.

Danny took a deep breath. "Do you guys remember the massive ghost invasion that forced you to put a ghost shield over almost the entire city?"

His family members all nodded.

"Okay, what _exactly _do you know about it?"

"There were a lot of ghosts," Jack mused, thinking back to the incident, "so many that all we could do was put up the shield and get everyone in town under it. Vlad was in town then and your friend and her father were with us too. They helped a lot. We were working on our suit that could magnify the wearer's power many times. I think it disappeared after that." Jack continued to look deep in thought, which made him look pained.

"You were there," Maddie chimed in, "I mean you were there as Danny Phantom so we didn't know it was you. I saw you fighting alongside Vlad and Valerie on the football field; though at the time we didn't know it was them either. You guys were fighting this really big ghost and one that looked like a knight with a sword and horse." She too stopped and stared at the wall, lost in thought.

"'Kay, good," Danny began hesitantly, "Well, that was because that really big ghost you saw, Mom, was unleashed in the Ghost Zone. See, he was trapped in this thing, the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, because he claimed to be the king of all ghosts and he was ruthless. These really ancient ghosts imprisoned him a long time ago with no intention of letting him out. But he . . ." Danny drew the words out in order to figure out how to not incriminate Vlad, "got out," he said carefully, "and so all the ghosts in the Zone fled to our world to escape him." Danny paused to make sure his parents were keeping up. They nodded.

"So in order to fix everything the king had to be put back to sleep?" Maddie clarified.

"Exactly," Danny said with a smile.

"What about the knight?" Jack spoke up, "The ghosts last night mentioned a Fright Knight?"

"Right," Danny said, getting into it, like he was telling a scary story around a camp fire, "not _a_ Fright Knight, _the_ Fright Knight. He served, and apparently wants again to serve, the Ghost King. He carries a sword that with one touch can send you into your worst nightmare."

"And you fought these guys?" Maddie said wearily.

The hard part of his task made itself known again, causing Danny to hesitate. "Well, yah, I mean, someone had to. And like you said Vlad and Valerie were helping. Though, I really didn't want Val to help. She got seriously injured because of her involvement. I mean it wasn't her responsibility, she didn't-,"

"Uh, Danny?" Sam cut in. He turned to her. "Save it for Valerie."

"Oh right, moving on," Danny continued, "so the Knight can be bound in a pumpkin using a spell, which is the only way I see out of the mess we're in now. See, the ghosts that talked to Dad and I said that the Fright Knight is planning to release the Ghost King so that they can try to take over the Ghost Zone and our world, like they almost did last time."

"And you believe them?" Tucker asked before anyone else could comment.

"No, I didn't," Danny admitted, "which is why I went to a friend of mine last night with Mom and Vlad to verify the rumors." He stopped, suddenly unsure if what to say next.

"And he, who I'm guessing is Frostbite, said . . ." Sam prompted.

"Frostbite confirmed it," Danny stated. He let the words hang in the air.

"So what do we do now?" Jazz broke the silence.

"Well, we have . . . allies," Danny offered.

"The ghosts are offering their help ahead of time? That's nice," Sam commented.

"Wait, you didn't finish the story," Maddie said, "How did you get the king back in the sarcophagus?"

This was the part of the conversation that Danny had been dreading the most so he was quite grateful when the sound of a cell phone ringing interrupted the conversation. It was his, which was odd since everybody who usually called him was right there in the room. He looked down at the glowing screen once it was out of his pocket. He didn't recognize the number but he answered it anyways, happy to take a break from the stressful conversation.

"Hello?"

"Danny! I'm glad you picked up!" Vlad. That's right, he had given his number to Vlad. And he'd forgotten all about it since Vlad had never bothered to call him before today.

"Yah, what's up?" Danny asked into his cell, a little worried.

Everybody just watched as Danny listened intently to what the mysterious caller was saying. They noticed Danny's expression change from curious, to guarded, to pleasant, but no one bothered to interrupt and ask what was going on. They knew Danny would tell them when he was done and most of them were still trying to process everything Danny had just explained.

"No way," Danny said into his cell with a bit of a smile, "yah I bet." He looked around the room and his eyes lit up when they passed over the air vent low on the wall, blowing AC into the kitchen.

"Hold on just a sec," he said into the phone while he walked over to his mom at the table.

"Hey mom, can I borrow that real quick?" he asked nonchalantly as he pointed to an ecto-gun on her belt.

Maddie was confused but she held the gun out to her son with a dubious "Sure."

"Thanks," Danny replied as he took the weapon from her and walked over to the vent. He clicked the magnitude of the blast down to low before kneeling down and sticking the barrel of the ecto-gun through the slits in the vent and firing a single blast.

A loud crash could be heard coming from the basement/lab, followed by even louder groans that Sam and Tucker recognized immediately as ghosts.

"Huh, looks like you were right," Danny laughed into his cell before thanking Vlad and hanging up.

Danny walked back over to his stunned parents and handed his mom back her gun. (That sounds so weird.)

"Danny, wha-?" she began, but was interrupted by more groaning from the two ghosts now lumbering up the basement stairway.

"Was that really necessary?" Skulker asked as he tried (without success) to fix a dent in his suit's shoulder.

"Yah, dude," Ember agreed, rubbing her backside, "totally uncool."

"Well that's what you get for eavesdropping," Danny replied coolly.

"We weren't-," Ember began, but was silenced with a single look from Danny. He was _not_ happy.

"What were you doing bothering Vlad?" he demanded, letting his eyes flash bright green to show them that he meant business. His full attention was on the two ghosts in front of him and no longer on his family and friends behind him. The tense little meeting he'd been having had made him edgy.

"We were just-," Skulker tried, but Danny held up his hand to stop him from trying to make up an excuse. He then rubbed his hand over his forehead and sighed.

"Look," Danny began in a stern voice, one that somewhat surprised his parents, "if we're really going to make this whole being-allies thing work then you can't do things like this."

"Things like what?" Skulker asked, trying to sound innocent. Guess what? He failed.

"Things like listening in on my private conversations and going to see Vlad behind my back," Danny answered.

"We weren't doing that behind your back," Ember said cheekily.

"Oh really?" Danny shot back, "Cuz I believe Vlad said that your exact words were, 'Don't tell Danny we were here.'"

"That was a test," Skulker stated.

"A test?" Danny echoed.

"Yes," Ember insisted, "to see if he really is all that loyal to you now. And congrats, apparently he is."

"Not only did he tell you what we told him not to tell you," Skulker took over, "but he somehow knew to warn you that we were coming here to spy on you." His tone was accusatory.

"We didn't tell him that part, nor did we even plan it in advance, so explain _that_ Mr. No Secrets," Ember demanded, crossing her arms. Somehow they had managed to turn the tables, putting Danny on the defensive.

"Oh what, you think _I've_ got spies on _you_? Please," Danny said, folding his arms as well.

"Then how do you explain the whole shooting-at-us-through-the-vent thing if Vlad didn't warn you?" Ember asked.

"Vlad _did_ warn me," Danny explained, "and that shouldn't come as a surprise to you. Vlad is still Vlad. I may have changed his outward appearance, but, I mean, isn't this what he would have done before? Figured out your next move even before you do?"

"Hm," Skulker considered this as he had had plenty of experiences with Vlad when he was evil, "that's true. Only now he's not using it to _his_ advantage. He's letting you use it for yours." Skulker seemed amazed at what he just said.

"Yah, lucky me," Danny said trying to shrug it off so that the full impact of what was going on didn't hit the ghosts, "and for the time being, us. Now can I get back to–?" He motioned to the gaping parents and ready-to-pounce-if-he-needed-them friends.

"Oh right, sure, go ahead," Skulker said and went back to fooling with his dented suit. Ember leaned back against the wall and slid down to a sitting position.

Danny gawked at them. "Uh, no, I mean leave," he said objectionably.

"But you were just getting to the best part!" Ember complained.

"Yah, the part where we save your hide," Skulker said with a grin.

"You did _not_ save me," Danny corrected hotly, "you showed up barely in the knick of time to fight the skeleton army and left me to take care of the King, you know, the hard part."

"Whatever," Ember scowled, "besides I wasn't talking about that part." She shot Skulker a look for speaking for her. He was gonna hear about that later. "I meant the part where Dipstick has to tell his parents how he _single-handedly_ brought down the Ghost King." She gave Danny a smirk to let him know that she had not appreciated the blast from Maddie's gun or the little lecture that had followed and so now he was paying for it.

Danny gave her an eye roll and turned back to his team after muttering, "Fine, you can stay." He closed his eyes and took a deep, cleansing breath. When he opened his eyes he saw worried faces looking back at him.

"Alright, any questions before I continue?" he asked then quickly snapped around, "_Not_ from you two." Skulker shut his mouth.

Danny turned to face to his family and friends again. They all stared blankly at him. Maddie suddenly spoke up.

"Did you . . . you didn't . . . take the suit . . . did you?"

Danny winced and looked down at his shoes for a minute. He looked back up and answered her slowly and directly.

"I took the suit. I put on the suit. I used the suit to defeat the Ghost King."

"Then Vlad stole the suit," Tucker finished for him. Danny shot him a you're-not-helping glare.

"Yah, but then Danny and I blew up the suit so he couldn't fix it and use it anymore," Jazz chimed in. Danny sighed.

"I was trying to keep Vlad out of this," he explained.

"What?!" Ember exclaimed from her spot on the floor, "That's kinda hard to do considering the _whole thing_ was his fault!" Danny shot her a death glare and she pouted.

"Wait, back up," Maddie suddenly said, "didn't the suit drain you like it drained your father?"

"Eventually," Danny said vaguely. His mom just kept staring at him. "Remember, Vlad 'found' me?" he said using air-quotes, "I passed out right after I got the king into the sarcophagus and Vlad locked it."

"Oh . . ." Maddie got a far-away look in her eye, then returned to earth, "Oh, you were exhausted that whole day and during the week that followed."

"Yah, it wasn't that fun," Danny admitted.

Maddie gave him a sympathetic mom look.

"What about the whole thing being Vlad's fault?" Jack said emotionlessly.

"Well, I don't really know what he was trying to do, but he's the one who woke up the king and knight in the first place," Danny said solemnly.

"He wanted to be king of the Ghost Zone," Skulker stated plainly.

Ember snorted, "He wanted to be king of _everything_."

Danny opened his mouth to say something mean to them but couldn't do it. They were speaking the truth. His parents would have to accept Vlad's past or they could never fully accept him in the future.

The room was silent.

"We have to go," Skulker suddenly announced.

"What, you guys on a schedule?" Danny teased, "Places to haunt, people to spy on?"

"Clever," Ember remarked, standing up, "But he's right, we were supposed to ask you if you had come up with a plan yet and report back."

They looked at Danny expectantly.

"A plan, right," Danny said, sounding exasperated, but when he spoke again his voice was clear and authoritative, "We're gonna want to strike _before_ the Fright Knight has a chance to unleash the Ghost King, if that's possible. So I need to know if we can find where he is and take the fight to him. Putting him on the defensive isn't the greatest strategy, but it's better than waiting around for him to come to us with the king, agreed?"

Skulker and Ember nodded.

"So find the Fright Knight?" Skulker clarified, "That's all you need us to do?"

"And the spell," Danny replied, "We're gonna need the spell to lock him in the pumpkin again."

More nodding.

"Alright, see ya, Whelp."

"Later, Dipstick."

They were turning to go. Danny cleared his throat in the oh-no-you-don't kind of way. The two ghosts looked back at him.

"And from now on-," he started to warn.

"No spying," Skulker finished for him.

"We got it," Ember said with an eye roll.

Then they were gone. Danny turned back to his family and friends. His parents were kind of gaping at him.

"They," Maddie finally got up the nerve to say, "They . . . listened to you. They took orders from you."

"Well, sure," Danny said, attempting to shrug this off too, "I mean, they know the consequences."

His parents just blinked at him.

"The consequences being that we _stop_ being allies," Danny explained, "and, believe me, they don't want that."

Maddie thought about this. Danny, whether he would admit it or not, held some degree of respect from the ghosts he dealt with. She knew he was good at what he did, but it had never occurred to her that he might be so good that other ghosts were capable of treating him as an equal. The thought both comforted and scared her.

**That's it for now! And that was a lot! Don't know when I'll be back, rest of break's kinda busy. Sorry. Believe me, I won't be enjoying myself too much. I have to go to a Latin competition. :p**


	12. Chapter 12: Braggart

**I know what you're thinking. No, I didn't die in some horrible freak-chariot-racing accident while at Latin Competition (yes that is seriously something we do there). I just got super busy. I've been working on this chapter since I got back and just finished it yesterday. That's how busy I am. And I will remain this busy until school gets out (for me, that's May 30) so expect few updates, if any, until summer. I know and I'm sorry. But trust me, it's worse for me. ******

**Special thanks to Luiz4200 for suggesting Valerie make an appearance. I finally got around to putting her in it. Let me just say that this is NOT her first time talking to Danny since the Disasteroid and I mention that in there.**

**Invader Johnny also has brilliant ideas! Vlad's sister. Ooh, me likey! But we'll have to see. And he, along with peppymint suggested Dani. Another we'll see. **

**IJ actually suggested Dani living with Ember and I think that would be awesome. However, I don't think I can pull it off.**

**Thanks to all my other reviewers! Enjoy!**

_Danny's body hit the ground with a sickening thud. A huge dark blur of a ghost stood over him. A red smile flashed on the figure's huge head._

_Maddie tried to scream, to call out to her son, but when she opened her mouth, no sound came out. She reached at her side and searched frantically for a weapon. Finding none, she looked up to see the dark ghost point one of her own ecto-weapons at her son's chest._

_She was sobbing now. She could feel the tears running down her cheeks and choking her throat, yet still she couldn't hear her cries. As the ghost's smile got wider and his finger tightened around the trigger, Maddie felt a pain-filled scream shake her body. This time the sound of it exploded into her ears._

"Mom!"

Maddie opened her eyes to find Danny's worried eyes boring into hers. He had her shoulders in a firm grip, though that didn't stop her from shaking because of the cold sweat the dream had left her in.

"Danny?" she croaked. His name sounded strange to her ears, but saying it felt better.

"Mom, are you okay?" Danny said quietly. She couldn't read the emotions in the question as she was still finding her bearings. She was on the couch. The house was dark. She remembered coming downstairs since she couldn't sleep and putting the TV on. She must have dosed off.

After a few calming breaths, she was able to reach up and take Danny's hands off her shoulders while saying, "Yes, I'm fine."

"Mom, you were screaming in your sleep," Danny stated plainly. The emotion was all too obvious now. The worry was always obvious, but she could sense there was anger too. Not anger directed at her, but the kind of anger Danny seemed to show most often these days, the mad-at-myself-and-it's-all-my-fault kind. Maddie instantly understood what she had just done and cursed herself for being so weak. It may have been a dream, an uncontrollable and random firing of neurons or a vision from her subconscious, whichever you believe, but still it wouldn't have happened and she wouldn't have reacted so strongly to it if she could just come to terms with Danny's . . . strength? . . . responsibilities as a half-ghost? . . . tendency to get himself out of deadly situations with luck that she didn't trust he would always have? Oh who was she kidding? That wasn't going to happen.

"I'm sorry, Honey," she whispered, looking down at her hands twisting in her lap, "I just . . . it's a lot to process." They hadn't had a chance to talk since the meeting that morning, even after the ghosts left.

"I know, I know," Danny said getting up to pace in front of the couch, "It wasn't fair of me to suddenly dump all that on you."

"No," Maddie didn't whisper now. She firmly took Danny by the wrists and made him sit next to her on the couch. "Danny, I'm your mother. You can and should share these things with me. You shouldn't have to carry these kinds of burdens by yourself." Maddie saw the surprise in Danny's eyes at the strength of her voice and was spurred by it to keep going. She was determined to not add to his burdens by making him think she might crack under the anxiety of it all.

"It was just a dream. That's all," she made sure to keep eye contact that would help reassure him. It didn't work as well as she had hoped.

Danny sighed. "I always knew that if you found out about what I do, you'd worry," he said, not bothering to whisper any more either, "I thought by the time you found out I'd have come up with some way to help, but I haven't." He ran his fingers through his hair and looked down at the ground. With a more determined expression, he looked back up at her. "I mean, if there's anything you can think of . . ." he trailed off, somewhat unsure of where he had been going with that thought.

"I'll let you know," Maddie assured him, "but really I'm fine. It's just been a long day, well, more like a long week."

"I know what you mean," Danny nodded with a small smile.

"In fact, you should be in bed too," Maddie realized, "Why are you up?"

"Oh, I was on the phone with Valerie," Danny explained, "I called her to ask her to come over tomorrow, you know, both for Vlad's session and because she needs to know about what's going on with the Fright Knight and everything. We hadn't talked since the awkward conversation we had shortly after the whole Disasteroid thing so we had some catching up to do."

"Aw, well that's nice," Maddie smiled warmly, "but seriously we both need sleep."

"True," Danny said getting up, "Night Mom."

"Goodnight Danny," Maddie replied, also getting up. After a hug the two went upstairs to go to bed.

* * *

Vlad knocked on the door to Fenton Works, feeling somewhat nervous. This was the first time since his first day of "therapy" that Danny was not waiting for him on the front steps. He hadn't had to knock since that day and doing so now brought back the uneasiness that had been with him then. He took a deep breath to calm himself. This was no big deal. It didn't mean anything. They probably weren't going anywhere this time and that's why Danny didn't wait outside for him.

The door opened and Danny greeted Vlad with a polite "Hey" (so different from how he used to be welcomed, Vlad noted) and invited him inside. That's when Vlad saw _her_ and realized that maybe he did have a reason for being nervous about today. She was sitting on the couch laughing at something Tucker, who was sitting beside her, had just said. Sam sat on the other side of her and noticed Vlad first. She gave him a weak, yet sympathetic, smile that seemed to show that she had been against the idea of surprising him. Next she shot Danny a look that seemed to confirm this. Vlad turned to Danny as well.

Danny didn't even wait for him to say anything. "You were gonna have to face her sometime," he offered as his only excuse.

"A little warning still would have been nice," Vlad shot back.

"What's wrong, _Vlad_," Valerie suddenly spoke up, "not happy to see me?"

Vlad turned to meet Valerie's penetrating eyes. He opened his mouth to respond and nothing came out. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Well . . . I'm just surprised and . . ." after a quick weighing of the options in his mind, he decided to play it straight, "well no, not happy. Why would I be? Out of all the people here you probably have the most reason to hate me."

Valerie smiled smugly. "True, but we're supposed to work things out. And don't worry; Danny didn't let me bring any weapons."

"Thanks for that," Vlad muttered to Danny as they walked into the living room to join everyone else. Danny sat down next to Sam, leaving Vlad to sit across from all of the teens in a chair by himself. Now he felt even more uneasy. The arrangement felt like one in a court room. There was no doubt that he was the one on trial here and the smirking, wise-cracking teenagers were both his jury _and_ judge.

"So," Vlad started, hoping to ease some of the tension and convince himself that they were not doing what he thought they were doing, "I believe the best way to start would be with an apology."

"That probably would be best," Valerie said lightly.

Vlad opened his mouth.

"But I don't want to hear it," Valerie firmly stated before Vlad could get a word out. Now he was just confused. His face went blank as he tried to figure out what this meant. Valerie laughed at him.

"Look, before you hurt yourself trying to 'read me' or whatever it is manipulative jerks like you do in order to mess with people-"

Vlad opened his mouth again, this time to protest.

"I know, I know, _ex_-manipulative jerk, whatever," Valerie interrupted again, "but we need to lay our cards down on the table and just deal with them and my first card is I'm not ready to forgive you." Valerie kept her eyes locked on Vlad's and when she paused here he nodded solemnly.

Valerie continued, "You can't apologize to me using words. I'm gonna have to _see_ the change in your actions. I mean, you put me through a lot. I trusted you and the whole time you were using me, making me do things that, if I'd known better, wouldn't want to be doing. You made me a bad guy too. I'm still trying to forgive myself."

She gave a nervous glance in Danny's direction and he gave her a reassuring smile. She turned back to a nodding Vlad. "I understand completely," he said.

"You do?" Valerie asked, sounding surprised.

"Yes," Vlad answered truthfully. There was something about his voice . . . something different about it that really got to Valerie. It lacked the confidence and arrogance it used to have when he addressed her, and yet it was still him. It was just so . . . genuine. It had Valerie beginning to let her guard down sooner than she had planned to. But she didn't want to let him see that.

"And you take full responsibility?" she questioned skeptically.

"Of course."

"You're not mad?" She sounded almost like she wanted him to be.

"No," Vlad responded, his candid tone still not faltering.

"Aw man," Valerie mumbled under her breath.

"What?" Vlad looked from her to Danny as if he was afraid he'd done something wrong.

"Nothing," Valerie was quick to reply. But it was obvious something was up. The other teens seemed to be holding back laughter.

"Yah nothing," Danny said in a tone that told the others to cut it out. But then he smiled mischievously. "Except she owes me a smoothie," he added and all the teens but Valerie let out their giggles.

"What, you bet on my reaction?" Vlad asked, not expecting to be right. But he got nods in return.

"Val thought you'd say something mean or get mad when she refused your apology, but I told her I knew you wouldn't," Danny explained, "She didn't believe me, talking about how she knew you better because of all the time you used to spend together before . . . you know."

"So he bet me and I took it," Valerie finished, "guess I won't make that mistake again."

"The not giving me a second chance part or the betting with Danny part?" Vlad wanted to know.

"Who said I'm giving you a second chance?" Valerie snapped.

Vlad looked startled.

"Gotcha," Valerie said with a sly smile.

Vlad gave her a sheepish yah-you-got-me look. The conversation took on a light tone from there. They mainly discussed Vlad, how he thought his rehabilitation was going and awkward things like that. While discussing Vlad's trial, the date of which had still not been announced, Maddie, followed by Jazz and Jack, came into the room to check on everybody and offer refreshments.

Everyone had just thanked Maddie for the lemonade when suddenly a blue wisp of smoke appeared on Danny's breath. At almost the exact same moment a shout came from somewhere above them in the house, "Danny!" Everyone who knew her well enough instantly recognized Ember's smooth, demanding voice.

"I'm downstairs!" Danny casually called back.

"Well you might wanna be upstairs!" came the smart reply. Danny rolled his eyes. These little cuz-we're-allies-and-we-want-to-know-your-every-move meetings were getting old. He was already getting up and opening his mouth to excuse himself when there was a strange noise that sounded like a huge wind hitting the house.

Danny's ghost sense went off again, stronger this time, and his eyes went wide. Without an explanation, he dashed to the stairs and changed so that he could fly the rest of the way to the roof.

"Should we-?" Tucker began to ask and even before he finished everyone was up out of their seats and running up the stairs and then to Jazz's room to get to the Op-Center.

On the roof, er top of the Op-Center, they found Danny (in ghost mode) flanked by Skulker and Ember. The three were staring up at the tornado of ghost skeletons that was swirling down on to the house.

A dark hooded figure appeared at the other end of the roof and began making its way toward them. The skeletons seemed to disappear, save for a few that landed on the roof and followed the hooded ghost as if they were his body guards.

Danny instantly recognized them as part of the skeleton army that occupied Amity Park when the Ghost King was in control of it. This was not a good sign. Everyone else (his family, friends, and Vlad) seemed to gradually realize this as well. Danny could hear them a few feet behind him, gasping and whispering to one another.

The hooded ghost got closer. Though his family, friends, and Vlad were keeping their distance (probably because of Skulker and Ember, Danny reasoned) he could feel them go rigid as the dark figure stopped to stand in front of him threateningly. It then unsheathed a sword from a hidden belt at its side and pointed it directly at Danny.

Out of the corner of his eye Vlad saw Maddie grip Jack's arm as the sword came out and was jabbed so that it hung in the air just a few inches from Danny's nose.

"_You._" The voice was full of disgust and hatred, but was somehow lacking in the creepy department. Not that any ghost could creep Danny out. Still, he had been expecting something more . . . menacing, you know, something that would send shivers down his spine, what with the whole hood-hiding-his-face thing. But this? There was something off about this. _Maybe it's not his terrifying features that he's keeping hidden, but his identity. _The thought floated through Danny's mind just as the mysterious, though ultimately not scary, hooded ghost spoke again.

"The Knight has a message for you."

"For me? How special," Danny replied coolly, surprising some of the people behind him, mainly his parents. Vlad furtively glanced at them and saw that Jack was holding Maddie's hand and allowing her to squeeze it really hard when she needed to, which was basically anytime someone moved.

The mystery ghost showed no reaction to Danny's light tone, but pointed his sword towards the edge of the Op-Center to Danny's left, motioning for him to go over to it. With an annoyed glare, Danny walked to the railing and looked down to the street in front of his house. Ember and Skulker followed him, but this didn't stop everyone else from coming to have a look as well. Danny smiled to himself, proud of his team for not letting their fear get the better of them. His smile vanished when he saw the eerie presence that had consumed his street.

Green eyes of the ghost skeleton army glowed up at him from where they stood tall and still in some kind of strange formation. Danny soon realized it wasn't just a pattern; it was a message:

THE KING WILL RISE.

Danny recovered sooner than anybody else. He turned back to the hooded ghost. "Cute," he said cuttingly, "You guys do halftime shows?"

The ghost showed no emotion in reply. Not that Danny could have seen anything with that stupid hood in his way.

"No? Well, you can tell the knight that I said not even in Pariah Dark's _royal_ dreams!" Danny spat, putting sarcastic emphasis on the word "royal."

This got a reaction from the oh-so-mysterious one. "Fool!" he seethed, "The Knight and King each have more power in one finger than you will ever have in your entire body!"

"Alright, I've had enough of this," Danny replied, sounding angry, "If you're gonna insult me than at least do it to my face. Enough with the hood, take it off."

The ghost didn't move.

"I knew you sounded familiar," Danny said smugly. He sighed, "Come on, let's see which one of you is a traitor."

The hood came off in an instant.

"I am _not_ a traitor!"

"Ooh! It's Sam's ex!" Tucker yelled, laughing before he was painfully elbowed in the side by his goth friend.

"I have always been loyal to the Fright Knight and Ghost King," Prince Aragon explained, "Who do you think granted me power over my kingdom?"

"You mean the kingdom we helped your sister take from you so that it could be ruled _properly_ and not as some brain-washed, dark-ages wasteland?" Sam put in, taking a step forward so that she was next to Danny and so Ember and Skulker now stood on either side of them somewhat protectively.

"My _sister_," Aragon said disdainfully, directing the words at Danny as if Sam weren't even there, "will be put back in her proper place when the King is awakened and makes right what you made wrong. If only you could get _your_ girl back in _he_r proper place as well."

Danny was in front of Sam, blocking her dive for Aragon, before anyone else even figured out what the strange medieval ghost had meant.

"It's not worth it," he said calmly to her. Sam glared at him but put her hands, which had been in I'm-gonna-literally-rip-you-apart position, back at her sides.

"Listen," Danny said venomously, turning back to Aragon, "I don't care if you're the Knight's little _pet_ dragon, I will face his wrath if you dare to insult her, or anyone here for that matter, again."

"Oh so you get a go at him but I don't?" Sam interjected from her position at Danny's side, "How is that equal treatment? And besides, aren't you forgetting that the only way we were able to beat him last time was with a dragon on our side? Which at the moment we don't have!"

"Okay first of all," Danny said gently, "you know I'm always happy to have you by my side in a fight _when you're armed_," he nodded at her wrist-ray-less wrist, which Sam then hid guiltily, "and secondly," he turned back to Aragon so that what he said next was directed more at him, "he can't touch me. That would be disobeying orders."

Aragon's jaw dropped. Danny laughed. "The Fright Knight told you just to scare me, didn't he? He wants me uninjured for the real fight."

Aragon didn't have to answer; his expression showed that Danny had guessed correctly.

"Man, I could tell you'd been demoted," Danny chuckled, looking Aragon, who was dressed more like a knight than a prince, up and down, "but to be taking orders from a knight, you must be really desperate."

"Foolish Half Ghost! You cannot get away with insulting me, Knight's orders or not!" Aragon yelled furiously and threw his hands up in the air in expectation of his form changing into that of a dragon. Sam, Skulker, and Ember even took steps back.

Nothing happened.

"That's what I was hoping you'd say," Danny smiled smugly.

Aragon looked at him blankly. Then his face practically turned purple with rage as a second Danny appeared next to the original, casually swinging the prince's amulet around his finger.

"Oh I'm sorry," the second Danny said cruelly, "you need this to change, don't you?"

"How dare you-" Aragon began to scream, but Danny cut him off as his two selves merged into one.

"Save it," he said, tossing Aragon the amulet and catching him off guard so that he almost dropped it. "Come back when you're ready for a real fight."

And with that he turned his back on the "prince" and began walking to the door that led back into the Op-Center. Once at the door, Danny turned to make sure his team was following him. They were. And Aragon and the skeletons had silently disappeared.

* * *

"Oh I could have taken him right then and there, Master, the little braggart tempted me so," Aragon whined to the Fright Knight in their lair hidden somewhere deep in the Ghost Zone.

"I know," the Fright Knight replied coolly to his pacing lackey, "but you must be patient. The King will take such pleasure in watching him fall. We cannot deprive him of that."

"Yes, how you are right," Aragon sighed.

"Now, you didn't forget your mission did you?" the Fright Knight asked with an edge that threatened extreme consequences if he had.

"Of course not, he was there, I saw him," Aragon replied hurriedly.

"He is definitely . . . good?" the Knight questioned.

"I'm not completely sure how changed of heart he is, Master," Aragon answered, "I know only that it is true that he cannot use his ghost half due to some sort of device on his arm and he does indeed stand on the side of the Phantom."

The Fright Knight thought this over. "This is good. He will be easy to take and bend to our will. And . . ." Here the Knight seemed to grin maliciously, "then the King and I can have our revenge on _both_ of those arrogant Halfas!"

**I know. It's sorta a cliffie. I'm sorry. I couldn't resist.**

**I might as well announce now that I think what I'm gonna do is write a collection of one-shots to come after this story since Dani and Vlad's sister probably won't get to be in this but I want to write about them. Plus I've got some other little Vlad-being-good mini-stories that can only happen after he's rehabilitated (as well as some deleted scenes from this story) that can go in there. So all that will come out after this is over which might not be till summer. Sorry. Again. But who knows, maybe I'll find time. And maybe Johnny Depp will knock on my door tomorrow and ask me to write for his next movie. Yah, uh huh, no.**


	13. Chapter 13: Adultnapped

**Oh my gosh! I actually had time this weekend to do this! YAY! I decided to go ahead and post it, but with a warning. I was going to wait until I had written all of the last chapters (because they get kinda suspenseful) and post them one after the other maybe every other day. Well, instead I'm posting this one now. And the others will follow once they're written, which could be a while. But I've actually already started on the next one so maybe this won't be so bad.**

**Anyways, thank you to all my reviewers from last time! I wanted to respond to each review individually I loved them so much, but that didn't happen. Sorry.**

**A few questions people wanted answered:**

**Why is it only Skulker and Ember that have been visiting Danny?**

**Because the allied ghosts supposedly have like a little get-together going on in the Ghost Zone and each of them have jobs. Skulker and Ember got chosen to be the messengers. Sorry if that wasn't clear.**

**Why did Danny give Aragon his amulet back?**

**Huh, I don't really know. I think Danny got a little carried away with acting all tough and you-don't-scare-me. Plus he was right, the Fright Knight told Aragon he couldn't hurt Danny so Danny knew he wasn't gonna do anything then. Sure, it might help in the future to have Aragon amuletless but I guess that wouldn't be very fair. **

"Danny."

No answer.

"Danny?"

Still no answer. He didn't even blink.

"Danny!" Sam yelled at her boyfriend for the third time.

"Hm, what?" He finally pulled his gaze away from the TV.

"Either you're really into the movie or you're _still_ thinking about the Fright Knight," Sam complained, meeting Danny's questioning look from where she sat next to him on the couch.

"I told you, the point of the movie is to get my mind _off_ that whole mess," Danny said, then hastily added, "and to spend time with you of course."

Tucker had been called away on official mayor business, leaving the couple with a night to themselves. Valerie hade left for her job and Vlad had gone back to the prison a little while after the whole Aragon episode. Skulker and Ember had left even sooner than Val and Vlad, after a semi-forced apology for not warning him in time about the skeleton army invasion, of which they apparently had previous knowledge and were supposed to warn him about, but got there too late. _Yah, thanks, you guys are great allies._

The rest of the gang (Danny's family) was scattered about the Fenton household doing various activities. They had reacted well to this afternoon's ghost interruption. At least, Danny _thought _they were okay. They really hadn't said much, even at dinner, but Danny didn't have time to worry about them right now.

"That's what you _said_," Sam replied, sounding a bit annoyed, "but I know you and it's obvious to me that you're still thinking about those stupid ghosts and not paying a speck of attention to the movie."

"That is _not_ true," Danny insisted.

"Really," Sam asked skeptically as she paused the movie, one of her favorite horror films, "then what just happened?"

"In the movie? Uh, they um," Danny stammered, "well they were looking for the girl in the creepy house and then-"

"Wrong!" Sam interrupted. Then she sighed because of the look that had appeared on Danny's face. He felt bad and she hadn't meant to lay on girlfriend-guilt when he had so much else to worry about. "Look, I understand," she said gently, "Maybe we should go to the Ghost Zone and help look for the Fright Knight or something. Just sitting here feels . . ."

"Good," Danny finished for her while taking her hand in his.

"I was gonna say useless . . . what do you mean good?" Sam asked, shooting him a what-are-you-crazy? look.

"I mean I'm not needed in the Ghost Zone," Danny explained, "I'm needed here. With you," he squeezed her hand for emphasis, "I should be relaxing until, you know, the actual fight."

"Are you telling me that we are seriously going to just sit around until the Fright Knight frees the Ghost King and brings the fight to us?" Sam asked harshly.

"No," Danny answered defensively, "but it's his move and we don't even know where he is. And-" He broke off as if changing his mind about saying something. Sam, of course, figured this out and didn't like it.

"And . . .?" she pressured.

"Well, I was just thinking . . ." Danny looked down and rubbed the back of his neck. Sam recognized this as his signature I'm-nervous-about-what-I'm-saying-or-doing gesture. Though she found it cute, it also meant he was stressing and needed some . . . relaxing.

"You mean just now when you were supposed to be watching a movie with your girlfriend you were thinking?" Sam teased, leaning her head in closer to his which was still bent downward.

"Hey, you knew coming into this that I'm no ordinary boyfriend," Danny responded playfully, bringing his head up enough so that they were face to face.

"I know," Sam said flirtatiously, tilting her lips closer to his "we wouldn't be here right now if you were." Danny closed the rest of the space between their lips and put his hands around Sam's waist as she wrapped hers around his neck, each pulling the other closer. The kiss was filled with the passion that the new couple was still trying to get used to as well as the comfort that came from feeling so close to eachother.

They pulled apart and Sam smiled at the look on Danny's face. She had done her job. Well, part of it.

"Better?" she asked softly.

"Always," he replied with the love-sick grin still on his face.

"Good, now what were you going to say?"

The grin dissolved a bit and Danny furrowed his brow. "Well, it just occurred to me," he said as they rearranged themselves so they could talk while she leaned on his chest and his back rested on the arm of the sofa, "that in order to raise the King, the Knight would need the key to the sarcophagus."

"Hm, I hadn't thought of that and I think you're right," Sam gasped and suddenly sat upright, "Vlad had the key last, didn't he?"

"That's what I don't know," Danny said, pulling Sam back down to his side, "Vlad locked the sarcophagus and then I blacked out." Danny ended this statement with a huge yawn. It was getting late. Sam would have to go home soon, but he didn't want to mention that now. He couldn't bear the thought of her leaving when she was the only thing that seemed to soothe his frazzled mind.

"Maybe you should ask him about it," Sam said slowly. She was suddenly very sleepy and snuggled on the couch with Danny felt like the perfect place to fall asleep. She let her eyes droop closed. She could afford to rest for a bit. After all, her over-stressed boyfriend was finally relaxing.

"Maybe I will," Danny sighed sleepily in response to Sam's suggestion. "Later," he added, but Sam didn't hear him. Soon they were both sound asleep.

RIIIIING!!

The two snoring teens jumped awake to the sound of the phone ringing in their ears.

"Darn it," Sam complained, sitting up and rubbing her eyes, "that's probably my parents wondering why I'm not home yet."

"Don't worry," Danny said as he got up, clumsily walking through a sleepy daze to get the phone, "I'll explain to them that you were just leaving. Hello?"

Suddenly, Danny's eyes got wide and he seemed to fully wake up. "Oh hi, is something wrong?"

Sam sprang up from the couch and ran to her boyfriend's side. It was obvious that the phone call was not from who they expected.

"Who is it?" Sam hissed, annoyed that she couldn't hear what was being said by the caller.

"What do you mean gone?" Danny said into the phone with a confused look on his face.

"What's gone?" Sam whined.

Danny gave her a look.

"Just tell me," she whispered.

"Okay, I'll be over soon, thanks, bye," Danny said, ignoring Sam and ending his conversation with the person on the phone. He hung up the phone and met Sam's you-better-fill-me-in-_now_ glare.

"Vlad's gone," Danny said simply.

"What?!" Sam asked, truly shocked, "He broke out?!"

"They don't know. He was there one second and then he was just . . . gone. I'm going over there to look around," Danny said, changing into his ghost form as if he were going to fly off to the prison any second.

"Well, I'm coming too," Sam announced, stepping forward with a look that said, "Leave without me and you die."

"I knew you'd say that," Danny answered with a smile. His smile faded and he glanced behind him at the kitchen and the stairs to the lab. "Guess we should get my parents too," he said, sounding sad.

Sam nodded in agreement. If Vlad really did break out, he certainly wouldn't be helping his chances at making up with Danny's parents. Sam knew Danny really wanted them to all be friends again, but Jack and Maddie deserved to know what was going on even if it meant undoing what little progress had been made.

"Call your parents while I go get mine and then we'll leave," Danny instructed as he headed for the lab stairs.

"I'm on it," Sam said, pulling out her cell.

"Wow," Danny murmured, causing Sam to stop dialing and look at him.

"What?" she asked, curious.

"We've never actually had to include the parents in this sort of stuff, you know? We used to have to sneak around," Danny explained with a strange look on his face.

"Yah, it's weird," Sam agreed. Then she shrugged and went back to dialing while adding, "But I guess it's better then getting grounded."

Danny smiled. "That's for sure," he said with a laugh. Then he turned and started down the stairs.

Sam smiled at her boyfriend's retreating figure. So much for getting him unstressed.

* * *

Vlad paced back and forth in his cell. No, not the cell that had been his home for the past few months, but a different one completely. One that had him missing his cell at Amity Park Correctional Facility like crazy. Wow, never had he expected _that_ to happen. Vlad was shaken from his (physical and mental) pacing when one of his captors swept into the room.

"Hey! You!" Vlad yelled through the bars of his new prison, "Prince something-or-other!"

The very ghost that earlier that day Danny had made a fool of on the roof turned in response to Vlad's demanding shouts.

"Do you actually have a plan or am I just going to sit here?" Vlad asked, trying to sound as bored and unthreatened as Danny had. He quickly realized, with a disappointment that he hoped he didn't let show, that this was something a teenager could do without trying but a forty-something year old man could not.

Aragon frowned in response to Vlad's tone. But then he smiled. "As a matter of fact," Aragon said lightly, "your part in the plan has arisen. I was just on my way to alert the master." He left.

Vlad stayed frozen with his hands around two of the bars of his cell. He had never really known what it was like to be in this kind of a situation: trapped in a cage at the mercy of some twisted ghost with absolutely no powers or any chance of escape. He decided he did not like being on this side of the bars. But then again, he didn't really want to be on the other side either. "They're the ones in trouble," Vlad reasoned with himself, "Because they're the ones who actually think they can cross Danny and win." Vlad laughed to himself. He had thought that plenty of times and it never came true. Why would this time be any different? Danny would come save the day eventually. He always did.

Aragon re-entered the room with the Fright Knight following closely behind him.

"Lord Aragon tells me you are interested in the reason for your imprisonment," the Fright Knight stated from where he seated himself across from his captive's cell.

"Yes," Vlad replied, pretending to be thrown off by the Knight's overly-bearing way of talking, "that's one way to phrase it."

"Well, simply put, you are bait," the Fright Knight said with the hint of a smile in his tone. He knew how demeaning that would sound to Vlad.

"I beg your pardon?" Vlad said, raising his voice.

"We want the ghost boy to come to us without any of his so-called allies and only you can make that happen," the Fright Knight explained.

Vlad's eyes widened in shock; he did not like where this was going.

"You are going to call the Phantom," the Fright Knight continued, "and explain to him how you fled from prison on a whim and now regret it. You will beg for him to meet you _alone_ so that you two can discuss the matter privately in an effort to avoid punishment. The place you will specify as your mansion since it is abandoned and therefore a safe place to talk. Have I made myself clear?"

Vlad just stared at the two medieval ghosts in front of him. This was _really_ annoying. How could this be happening? Here he was trying to be a good guy and these two idiots had the audacity to try to ruin it. If he did what they said, if he lured Danny right to them . . . he couldn't do it. No, he wouldn't do it. He refused to be the bad guy, especially a weak bad guy who was only being bad because he had been forced to by two morons.

"I won't do it," Vlad said sternly and he felt proud. It actually felt good to do the right thing.

"You don't really have a choice," the Fright Knight replied smugly, "Either you do as I say now or I allow Aragon to have you for a few minutes and then you do this." Aragon rubbed his amulet threateningly.

Okay, so much for feeling good about doing the right thing. The right thing was going to hurt. Badly. What if there were some in between? Some way that he could do what they wanted him to do _without _betraying Danny? Vlad put his scheming mind to work and was surprised when he actually came up with something. He may have gone soft, but his mind was still sharp. His celebration was cut short by the glares he was receiving from his captors, waiting for an answer.

"Fine," Vlad said, letting his voice shake a little, "but I doubt he'll really believe me."

"We'll allow you to go off-script a little," the Fright Knight explained, "but bear in mind that we'll both be right here to," he considered his next word for a second to allow his real meaning to sink in, "_remind_ you not to say anything that would give away our plan. Other than that, say whatever you must to get him to come."

Vlad simply nodded. This might be harder than he thought, but he had to try. He would not sit back and allow these fools to wreck everything he had worked so hard to get, namely Danny's trust.

**See what I mean? But don't worry I'll work on the next chapter every chance I get this week! **


	14. Chapter 14: Phone Call

**Not much to say except thanks to all the reviewers. My schedule is uncluttering (slowly but surely), so here's this and the rest will follow soon. Enjoy.**

"Here he is in his cell after lights out, sleeping, and then the next second, darkness. Someone must have covered up the camera."

Danny stared at the dark screen in front of him, not knowing what to make of it. His parents and Sam leaned over him, also watching as the security guard replayed, for about the hundredth time, the last few seconds of video that showed Vlad before his disappearance.

"What do you think?" Sam whispered near Danny's ear.

He turned to face her and his parents. "I . . . I don't know," he said and looked down at his feet with a defeated expression. But then his face hardened and he began to pace the room.

"This doesn't tell us anything," he complained, "I'll admit it's possible he could have . . . relapsed. But it's also possible that he could have been taken _against_ his will." Danny turned to the security guard. "There's no ghost shield around his cell, right?" he asked, though he already knew the answer due to the little field trip he had snuck Vlad out to take a few days ago.

"Yah, but what would any ghost want with Vlad?" Maddie asked, "Besides, aren't you all allies right now due to the present situation?"

Sam gasped. Everyone turned to look at her, but she turned only to Danny.

"Danny," she hissed, "the key."

Danny got a far-away look in his eyes. Then he smiled into Sam's eyes.

"That's got to be it," he said, allowing his relief to show.

Just then, Danny's cell phone rang. The security guard left, mumbling something about a post he had to be at soon.

"Hello?" Danny said into his cell. The response to his greeting almost made him drop the phone. "Vlad?!"

Sam, Maddie, and Jack gathered around Danny. Sam motioned for him to put it on speaker. Danny did as he was told, remembering how annoying she had been the last time he got an important call.

"Yes, it's me," came Vlad's reply. The reception on the phone wasn't very good so nobody could make out the emotion behind Vlad's words, if there was any.

"Look, I know I messed up," Vlad continued before Danny could even think of anything to say, "but I want to make it right."

"Messed up?" Danny couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You mean you did break out? On your own? You weren't abducted or something?"

There was a pause as if Vlad was waiting for the right words to come to him. "No, I wasn't abducted," Vlad said slowly, "I guess you could say I saw an opportunity and took it." There was another pause. "But now I regret it and I want to just come back and pretend like this whole thing never happened."

Danny rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes. "I don't know about that," he said into the phone, sounding pained, "The authorities are gonna ask questions. They're gonna want to know where you went. And why. Where are you anyways?"

"Look, I can't talk about this anymore over the phone," Vlad said, evading Danny's question, "We need to meet and discuss strategy. I'll tell you what happened and together we can decide what to tell everybody. Will you do that? For me?"

Danny sighed. "Where would I meet you?"

"My old mansion, you know, the one I was living in when I was mayor. It's all boarded up. We'll be able to talk privately. Oh, that's the other thing," Vlad seemed to struggle with this part, "I think it would be best if you came, you know, alone. I don't want your parents or friends to know about this. It will just complicate things. Oh and no ghosts either. No Skulker, no Ember, no _Vortex_. Just you and me. Will you promise me that?"

"Vlad I don't-" Danny started to protest, but Vlad cut him off.

"Tonight. 2 in the morning. The mansion. Please? I have to go."

Danny had no choice. "Fine."

"Okay, thanks. Bye."

The line went dead and everybody looked around at eachother. Then they all looked at Danny who seemed deep in thought.

"Something's . . . off," he finally said.

"I'll say," Maddie replied, folding her arms across her chest, "That was _very_ suspicious."

"I'm sorry Dan," Jack spoke up and put his hand on Danny's shoulder, "I know how much you wanted to change him. But we might just have to accept that-"

"No," Danny interrupted his dad, "that's not what I mean."

"Danny, you can't possibly believe that any part of that phone call was genuine?" Maddie asked incredulously.

"No, no it was definitely fake, but not how you think it was." Danny tried to begin pacing again, but Sam grabbed his arm. Their eyes met. The couple seemed to engage in a private argument, using only their eyes. Maddie didn't have the patience for that right now.

"What are you guys thinking? What did Sam say earlier? About a key?"

Danny broke away from Sam's stare to answer his mom. "The key to the king's sarcophagus. Vlad had it last. We thought maybe the Fright Knight captured Vlad to make him tell where it is."

"That could be what happened," Maddie said slowly, "but then maybe the Knight convinced Vlad to switch sides."

"An opportunity and he took it," Jack said solemnly.

Danny sighed. "You guys are gonna think I'm crazy, but I think he's still on our side."

"Sweetie, how do you _know_?" Maddie asked, pleading with her son to face the reality of what she thought was happening.

"One word," Danny said firmly, "There was one word that stuck out in that conversation."

Everyone was looking at him, waiting for him to explain, but when he paused they all tried to think back to what was said during the phone call.

Sam suddenly looked up. "Vortex," she stated.

Danny smiled and nodded.

"It made no sense for him to mention Vortex," Sam explained, "We haven't seen him in a while and, now that I think about it, I doubt he's even one of the allies. Wasn't he supposed to be put back in ghost prison or whatever that council puts out of control ghosts in?"

"Exactly," Danny said, looking excited, "It made sense for him to list Skulker and Ember cuz they keep popping up and being all protective. But Vortex isn't a ghost I would even _consider_ bringing with me anywhere if I wanted reliable back-up."

"I still don't get it," Maddie cut in, "what's Vortex's significance then?"

Danny turned eagerly to his mom and dad, "Remember that scene I showed you in the middle of the memory at Clock Work's, the one where Vlad asked me for help?"

The parents nodded.

"The ghost he needed my help with was Vortex." Danny leaned back against the wall and let it sink in.

"So by saying Vortex," Maddie clarified, "Vlad was really saying . . ."

"Help," Danny finished for her. "What do you think? Is it too much of a stretch?" He didn't think it was, but he asked anyways to show his parents that he was open to other ideas. He was worried that they believed he was so obsessed with making Vlad good that he wouldn't consider the alternative.

Maddie and Jack exchanged looks.

"Well, I don't know," Maddie admitted with a sigh, "but you are definitely not meeting Vlad alone."

"Of course not," Danny reassured her, "we'll all go. And, either way, we'll be prepared."

Vlad snapped shut the cell phone the Fright Knight had given him and looked at his two captors. "There. My part is done. Now can I go?" he asked, still trying to sound tougher than he felt.

"You didn't stick to the script," the Fright Knight pointed out threateningly.

"I said what I had to in order to get him to believe me," Vlad insisted, "You said that was okay."

"True, but _that_," the Knight replied, referring to what Vlad had said on the phone, "was more than I am comfortable with." He nodded at Aragon.

"Wha-?" Vlad began and was unable to finish due to a quick blow delivered to his stomach by Aragon. Vlad bent forward, gasping for the air that had been knocked so swiftly out of him. Before he could recover, there was a hit to the side of his head that was packed with so much force it flipped him over sideways and onto his back.

Head throbbing, Vlad could only comprehend the sound of his cell door being slammed closed. How had he even gotten back in his cell? He didn't know and he didn't care. All he could think about was how much he wanted to change into his ghost half and beat those idiots into a pulp.

"Can I go now?" the Fright Knight sneered at his captive through the bars, "No, you cannot go! You will be coming with us when we meet the Phantom in an hour and you will watch as we bring him to his knees, all the while knowing that _you_ helped us get to him. Then, you both will be presented to the King and he will do with you what he pleases." And with that the ghosts left Vlad alone with his aching head and stomach.

"Good," Vlad thought spitefully, "it's part of _my_ plan to be there tonight too." Aside from the beating that he had been trying to avoid, Vlad's plan was going quite well. At least it would be if Danny had figured out that it was a trap and came prepared. What if his clue had been too lame? It had taken him forever to come up with that and he still felt unsure about it.

Vlad hissed through his teeth as he gently touched the side of his face and felt one of his eyes starting to swell. Danny _better_ have figured it out. If he didn't see someone take care of those medieval freaks soon, he was going to go insane. Er, more than he already was that is.

**Sorry it was kinda short. But don't worry the climax is on its way. :)**


	15. Chapter 15: Humanity

**Okay guys, this is the longest chapter I have ever written. No time for anything but: Enjoy!**

Vlad stood perfectly still on the steps of the boarded-up, looks-like-a-tornado-hit-it mansion he once called home. Standing there now, he realized it lacked all the warm and fuzzy feelings a home should emit. In fact, he was feeling quite nauseous. But that was probably just from the punch to his stomach and the anticipation for what was to come in – he checked his watch – 4 minutes.

He looked around him at the growth that had taken over the front lawn. It was so dense he couldn't even see into it despite the light from the full moon that glowed above him. A soft breeze blew and the black cloak the Fright Knight had made him wear billowed around him. Vlad sighed. It was the perfect night to fake a betrayal. He just had to hope that one, Danny didn't fall for it, and two, that Danny was smart enough to bring some back-up so that they all didn't wind up bowing to the ghost king.

Danny crouched behind a large bush close to the front of Vlad's old mansion and peered through the leaves. A cloaked figure stood facing him and the jungle which used to be Vlad's front lawn that surrounded him. The figure didn't seem to see Danny though.

"I've got a visual on Vlad," Danny said into the Fenton Fone attached to his ear.

"Good," came his mom's response through the Fone.

"But no one else?" Sam asked.

"Nope, no one I can see _or sense_," Danny responded.

"They must be watching from far away," Tucker suggested.

"Or not there at all," Valerie voiced what everyone else was too nervous to point out.

Danny's sigh crackled over the Fones to his attentive team, who were communicating with him through the Fones from several yards away. After the phone call at the prison, Danny and Sam had rounded the whole team up and filled them in. They now all sat in a clearing where they had set up a little camp to wait at while Danny scoped out the situation. It was close enough that they could be at Vlad's mansion in a matter of seconds, but still far enough away that Danny was technically showing up "alone."

Danny took a deep breath. "Well, guess we'll know for sure soon," he said, signaling that he was going in.

"Danny, wait!" His mom's cry over the Fones surprised everyone and the camp went tense.

"Yah, Mom?" Danny said gently, suddenly right next to her with his hand on her shoulder.

He startled Maddie, but she recovered quickly. "I made you something, hold on," she said as she went to one of the bags of supplies the team had brought. She pulled out a long, skinny object and brought it back to where her son was standing.

"You're great all on your own, but I thought this could still be of some help," she continued as she pulled on a handle at the end of the object to reveal a brilliant blue sword, "you know, since it's a knight and a dragon you're up against." She sheathed the sword and presented it to Danny who took it from her carefully as if it was the most precious thing in the world to him.

"Mom, this . . . this means a lot to me." He scooped her up in a big hug before attaching the sword onto his belt. "And who knows? Maybe you guys are right and this has nothing to do with the medieval ghosts," Danny said, forcing a smile.

"Well whatever happens," Sam suddenly spoke up, "we'll be right here." She gave her Fenton Fone a tap for emphasis. Then her tone turned threatening, "You will keep us informed about _everything_ that goes on, right?"

Danny smiled at her before looking at his watch, "Right, okay, _now_ I'm going in." And with that he disappeared. The left-behind team members shared reassuring smiles, but fear of the unknown still hung in the air.

Vlad's attention was suddenly drawn to a spot in the bushes where he thought he saw movement. He was relieved and put back on edge at the same time when Danny, in human form, emerged from the darkness and began walking towards the house. His hands were in his pockets and his walk was casual. Vlad didn't know what to make of it.

"He seems off-guard, but maybe that's just a cover-up and he's really on-guard. Wait, is he on his guard because of me? Or because he knows the Fright Knight and Aragon are nearby? Did he really believe the phone call? Or did he-argh." Vlad had to stop himself. The not-knowing was driving him insane but he'd just have to wait.

Danny walked up the first step of the mansion and stopped. Vlad was on the third. Did he stop because he's afraid to come any closer? "And stop analyzing his every move!" Vlad yelled at himself in his head.

"Hey," Danny said with a small smile.

"Hi," Vlad managed to say in a normal voice, "thanks for agreeing to meet me here."

"No problem," Danny responded as he climbed up onto the third step. "You wanna tell me what happened?" he continued and motioned that they should sit.

"Uh, do you mind if we talk inside?" Vlad asked, following the Fright Knight's orders.

Danny, already sitting, looked up at him with a scrutinizing look. "Why are you wearing a hood?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused.

Vlad sat down since he didn't really care if they went inside or not. "Oh, no reason," he said as if he didn't even believe his own answer. He was turning to examine Danny's reaction when the hood was suddenly not around his head anymore. He smiled at Danny's boldness and turned to face him.

Danny's eyes went wide at the sight of what the Fright Knight had been trying to hide: Vlad's swollen black eye. "Ouch," he commented, "What'd you do? Run into Vortex on your way over here?"

Vlad smiled wider. Danny had gotten his message! "Good one," he replied.

Danny returned the smile. "So what happens now?" he asked.

"Well, they'll be here in about eight seconds and then we're supposed to, you know, start begging for mercy," Vlad answered casually.

"That doesn't sound like much of a plan," Danny pointed out.

"I guess that's because when they showed up we were supposed to be in my very intimidating, weapon-filled lab, but I was in charge of getting you inside there and it would seem that I have failed miserably at that," Vlad explained. "Darn," he added sarcastically.

"Oh I see," Danny replied still smiling.

"Yes, so please tell me _you_ have a plan," Vlad prompted. Danny seemed a little _too_ easy-going about this whole mess. But then again, he had access to his ghost-half while Vlad did not. Now that Vlad thought about it, he would be feeling pretty confident too if he could change. He glanced at the cuff still secured to his wrist with the little green light still blinking up at him.

Danny let the Fenton Fone hooked onto his ear show (he had been keeping it invisible). "I've got a few tricks up my sleeve," he said, bringing Vlad's attention back to him, "though I'm not positive my plan is any better than theirs." Now that he thought about it, Danny realized they didn't have much of a plan, per se. Tucker was in charge of contacting Skulker and Ember (using his PDA) when they were needed and then they were just going to . . . fight. Oh crud, maybe he should have thought this through more.

"Oh please," Vlad interrupted Danny's thoughts, "It's a given that your plan will be better than theirs because as far as villainous schemes go, and as you know I have _some_ background when it comes to these things, theirs, well, stinks."

Danny laughed at that and Vlad joined in.

"I wouldn't be laughing if I were you," the Fright Knight's gruff voice interrupted, "especially you Masters. Your disobedience is really starting to wear on my patience!" He motioned for Aragon to come forward and punish Vlad with more physical abuse, but when Aragon came forward so did Danny, now in his ghost form.

"I can't believe you two! What kind of cowards are you, hitting Vlad when he can't hit back?!" Danny ranted, his green eyes blazing.

"They're definitely there," Sam's voice caught Danny by surprise. "I say we go." The listening Team Phantom had been quiet up until now. At this point Danny realized he could probably take these two idiots on his own. This was good as he was never fully comfortable with the idea of any of his loved ones fighting.

"We're coming, Danny," his mom said over the Fones. Danny didn't respond. He couldn't stop them from coming, but it didn't matter since there would barely be enough for them to do. Why had they ever considered these guys so big of a threat?

Just then, screams and shouts of surprise came from the dark woodsy area around them. Danny could do nothing but gawk at the green glowing nets that now held every member of his team trapped amongst the over-growth. Troops from the skeleton army suddenly sprang up around them, swords drawn, leaving Danny and Vlad at the mercy of the Fright Knight unless they wanted a member of the Team harmed.

"Oh yah, that's why," Danny thought bitterly.

* * *

"So the Fright Knight wound up getting his way after all," Vlad realized as he gazed around his old basement lab that now held the entire Team Phantom captive. Well, he and Danny weren't technically captured yet. They had only agreed to follow the Fright Knight and his lackey into the house because the skeleton army had the rest of the Team at knife-point. So now here they all were.

Danny and Vlad watched as Jack, Maddie, Jazz, Tucker, Sam, and Valerie were thrown in some cells that lined the wall and locked in. It was at this point that Aragon noticed Tucker fooling with his PDA and snatched it from him.

"HEY!" Tuck protested, but the prince ignored him.

"Sir, he was calling the other ghosts! The allies!" Aragon alerted the Fright Knight.

"You didn't bring them with you?" Vlad murmured to Danny who simply shook his head "no" in response. Though he had alerted them of the situation, Danny had thought it best to leave them in the Zone for now. At least he _had_ thought that . . .

"I was afraid of this," the Fright Knight said. He then gave a curt nod to the skeleton troops. To everyone's surprise, they disappeared.

Danny and Vlad now stood face to face with the Fright Knight and Aragon. There were no pesky glowing skeletons crowding the lab anymore. "Now what?" thought Vlad.

"Well Halfas," the Fright Knight began, "with your team as my captives and your allies being engaged in battle with my _superior_ army, I highly suggest you surrender now."

Danny pretended to consider this, "Hm, I don't know. How does that sound to you?" He turned to Vlad.

"Like they have mistaken us for cowards as low and as dim-witted as themselves," Vlad said venomously and crossed his arms.

"How dare you!" the Fright Knight yelled. He then drew his sword and swung it at Vlad where it clanged loudly against a glowing blue blade.

The Fright Knight turned to see Danny glaring and holding his own sword readily.

"Oh I'm afraid you've made a big mistake now, boy, crossing blades with a _knight_!" At the word "knight" the Fright Knight attempted to take a swing at Danny, but was blocked once again. The two of them then became embroiled in a tense sword fight, leaving Vlad and Aragon behind. Danny didn't have the chance to notice as he continued blocking the Knight's harsh onslaught which he eventually was able to counter with some advances of his own.

Vlad was impressed and would have liked to watch the whole ordeal, but it was kind of hard to concentrate with Aragon giving him the I'm-gonna-hurt-you glare. "And I really should be helping," Vlad remembered. But what could he do in his human form? He glanced around the room. Duh, he was in _his own_ lab with weapons _he_ created.

"Poor Halfa," Aragon suddenly taunted, "without access to your over half, you're pretty much useless!" He sprang forward with his arms outstretched as if he were going to attempt to strangle Vlad.

Vlad reacted quickly, drawing closer to a wall with weapons on it while at the same time he caught Aragon by the arm and slammed him into the wall. He then grabbed a random ecto-gun off the wall and shoved it in Aragon's face. A pink stripe on the side of the gun glowed and the weapon made a threatening powering-up noise.

"Human I may be, but useless I am not!" Vlad shouted.

Aragon grinned smugly. "Fool!" he spat as he wrapped his hand around the gun, "Technology cannot be used against me!"

Vlad watched in astonishment as Aragon's hand transformed into a dragon's paw and effortlessly crushed the weapon. Aragon then delivered a blow to Vlad's chin, sending him flying backwards onto the ground. When he recovered, Vlad looked up to see an enormous dragon where his opponent had once been.

It was at this same moment that the Fright Knight suddenly managed to disarm Danny, using his sword to knock Danny's out of his hands and send it crashing against the wall on the other side of the room.

Danny and Vlad then each turned to look at the other with a "Help me!" look plastered on his face. When their eyes met, Vlad figured it was time to panic. Danny knew it was time to use his last resort.

"Press the green light on your cuff!" Danny shouted at Vlad, ignoring the tip of the Fright Knight's sword that was now dangerously close to his neck.

"What?" Vlad asked from his position still on the floor.

"The green light! It's really a button! Press it!"

Vlad sat up and did as he was told. To his surprise a panel on the cuff slid off to reveal a full keyboard, reminding him of the kind on cell phones.

"Type in 'Froot-loop'!" Danny yelled.

Vlad hesitated. He was pretty sure he knew what that would do. "Danny, are you su-?" he began.

"Just do it!" Danny pleaded as the Fright Knight's blade continued to linger in his face.

Vlad began typing. Unfortunately, the Fright Knight had by now caught on to what was happening.

"Don't just stand there," he called to Aragon, "Stop him!"

With a dragony roar, Aragon swiped at Vlad with his claws but luckily Vlad was able to dodge the attack by laying flat against the floor again.

Aragon screeched in annoyance and reared his head back in preparation for snapping at Vlad with his giant teeth.

Vlad finished typing and the cuff made a beep before releasing his wrist. The whole room appeared to go still. Aragon seemed to be moving in slow motion as his sharp dragon teeth got closer and closer to where Vlad was pressed against the floor.

Suddenly there was a flash of light at the spot where Vlad had been. When Aragon's teeth came crashing into the ground, there was no Vlad between them.

The Fright Knight was watching the whole scene as attentively as Danny was (though probably not as nervously) and so he barely had time to think before he was face to face with Vlad Plasmius.

Vlad couldn't resist a smug smile before he blasted the Knight in the head, causing him to go flying across the room and crash into the metal bars of one of the cells that held the Team.

Without even thinking, Vlad turned around to face Danny. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Danny smiled. Vlad's ghost half had . . . changed a little. And not just morally. But Danny decided to not freak him out by mentioning that now. "I'm fine," he answered, "shall we?"

"We most certainly shall," Vlad responded, turning back to find Aragon recovered from his mishap with trying to eat the floor.

"I'll distract him if you can get the amulet off," Danny suggested.

"Deal," Vlad agreed. And the two took off towards the slightly disoriented dragon.

Danny pulled ahead when Aragon suddenly breathed out a jet of green flames at the oncoming halfas. Using his freezing abilities, Danny put up a shield that effectively protected them from the scorching fire. Vlad meanwhile flew low and around to Aragon's neck where he blasted the amulet off. Having just finished plugging Aragon's nostrils with icicles, Danny watched, pleased, as Aragon then reverted back to his normal ghost prince form.

Vlad met Danny on the ground between Aragon and the cells holding the Team, swinging the amulet around his finger. They both glared at Aragon who, now powerless, dropped to all fours. Danny took this as a sign of surrender and unhooked the Fenton Thermos from his belt. He then sucked up the defeated "prince."

"One down, one to go," he said triumphantly to Vlad. They both turned to the cells, expecting to see the Fright Knight where they had left him. But he wasn't there.

"Oh great," Danny complained.

"Sorry," Vlad said, holding up the hand where the blast that he shot at the Knight had come from, "I'm probably more than a bit rusty."

"Nonsense, you're doing fine," Danny reassured him.

"Enough!" the Fright Knight thundered, shocking Danny and Vlad.

They spun around to see he had appeared behind them and he was not alone.

"On your knees!" the Fright Knight commanded. He had his sword in one hand and Jack restrained with the other. "Or the ghost hunter is sent into his worst nightmare!"

Danny and Vlad simultaneously dropped to their knees without looking at eachother.

"Good," the Fright Knight said smugly, "Now change back!"

Danny did as he was told then turned to look at Vlad who gave him a look that said, "Guess we messed up, huh?" before he too changed back into his human form.

Danny mentally slapped himself. This was not what was supposed to happen! These guys weren't a threat without the Ghost King! They were all brawn and no brain! "Well that's what you get when you underestimate your opponent," Danny thought sadly, "Our only chance now would be Skulker and Ember. They had to have taken care of the skeleton army by now, right?"

"Now," the Fright Knight interrupted Danny's thoughts, "this is how you will stay, understand?"

Danny and Vlad nodded.

"You," the Knight continued, looking at Vlad, "will tell me where the key is _now_ or your friend winds up in a very dark place." This came as a shock to Vlad who, unlike Danny and Sam, had not thought about the key and the possibility that the Fright Knight may want it and think he has it. He looked down at the floor, trying to remember where he had put it exactly. Did he even have it anymore?

Jack, who up until now had been quiet and still in the Knight's grasp, let out a snort. "You can't use my life against _him_," Jack explained, "I mean nothing to him. I am not his friend and he would be happy if I were dead."

Vlad snapped his head up and looked Jack straight in the eyes. "That . . . that is not true," he said softly.

Jack gave him an "oh puh-lease" look.

"Well maybe it was at some point," Vlad admitted, "but not anymore. I really do want us to be friends again." Jack looked thoughtful and Vlad felt urged to continue, "True friends, like we were in college before everything went sour. I'm really trying, Jack. I don't want to be a conniving jerk. I don't want to manipulate people anymore." He paused to let his words sink in and then turned his gaze on to the Fright Knight. "That is, right after I do this."

The Fright Knight was suddenly jerked back and away from Jack by an unseen force. Vlad (in ghost mode) appeared beside him. Baffled, the Fright Knight looked back and forth between the two Vlads, one human, the other ghost. Human Vlad waggled his fingers at the Knight in a taunting wave. The Knight's gaze then settled on Danny who was getting up since they now had the upper-hand.

"Don't look at me," he replied to the Knight's confused stare, "I can't do that." He smiled. "But I can do this." Changing as he flew, Danny came at the Fright Knight with both fists outstretched and glowing green with ectoplasmic rays.

The blow sent the Knight once again crashing into the wall, only this time he stayed there without moving.

"Nicely done," Ghost Vlad commented.

"Yah, way to work the system," Danny returned the compliment as he pulled out the thermos and presented it to Vlad, "Would you care to do the honors?"

"Really?" Vlad asked, but he took the thermos. While Ghost Vlad sucked the Fright Knight (sword and all) up, Danny went to make sure his dad was okay.

Jack was assuring Danny he was fine when they both noticed Human Vlad and Ghost Vlad were standing face-to-face together.

'What's up with my eyes?" Human Vlad turned to ask Danny.

Danny came over to stand beside him as they both examined his ghost half.

"I mean, I knew my hair would be different because of your make-over and I lost my cape in space but . . ." Vlad seemed to get lost staring at how different he looked, "but my eyes are definitely different. How can that be?"

Danny looked at Ghost Vlad's eyes. Instead of the evil red-without-pupils, they were now normal, like Danny's, only pink where his are green.

"I think," Danny answered slowly, "I think it's because you're letting some humanity into your ghost half, you know? Instead of the other way around." Vlad looked at Danny carefully, then smiled. With one last look at his not-so-evil-looking ghost half, Vlad let his two halves become one again, staying in human form.

"Here," Vlad held out the cuff to Danny. Once he took it, he then offered the ghost boy his wrist as well.

"You sure?" Danny asked.

"Well, it's not really my decision right now," Vlad explained, "And I think it's best we play by the rules."

Danny smiled and snapped the cuff on. "Right answer," he said as he finished the job by reprogramming in a new password. Vlad returned the smile and looked up to see Jack still standing close by.

"I'm gonna go free everybody," Danny said, giving Vlad a you-know-what-you-have-to-do look and a helpful nudge towards Jack, before turning on his heel and heading towards the cells.

With a deep breath, Vlad approached his old friend. "Jack," he said timidly. Jack looked up and from his eyes Vlad could tell he would hear him out. "I meant what I said," Vlad continued, "I'm sorry things got so messed up . . . that I got messed up. Nothing was your fault and it was stupid of me to blame you for an accident we both had a hand in creating. I was also stupid to not be thankful for what I had which was a true friend. And I wish . . . I wish I could have a second chance at that friendship . . . but I understand if that can't be."

Finished, Vlad noticed that Jack looked a little teary eyed. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'll be fine," Jack said with a sniffle, then he seemed to collect himself. "I accept your apology and . . ." he paused, looking like he was going to fall apart again, "um . . . do you want to come over and watch the game Sunday night?" Jack finally got the words out and finished with a weak smile.

"I'd like that," Vlad said smiling, "I'd like that a lot."

Just then Maddie came up to the two and gave her husband a big hug. "Oh I'm so glad you're okay," she said before releasing him. She then turned to face Vlad.

"Vlad, thank you so much, you were really great," Maddie leaned in closer, "and I know you said Danny can take care of himself but . . . when he . . . and then you . . ."

"I know," Vlad said so she didn't have to try to explain her worry, "and in response to what you asked me a while ago, about if I were to become free would I stick around . . ." Vlad paused to glance at Danny who was talking and laughing with his friends and sister with an arm around Sam's waist. "I definitely would," he finished, looking Maddie in the eyes.

"That'd be nice," Maddie agreed.

Danny chose that moment to pop up next to Vlad. "Hey," he greeted everyone before spinning around to face Vlad. "Okay, so this whole thing with your ghost half has given me a great idea for your trial," Danny began.

"Oh gosh," Vlad interrupted, "don't you ever take a break? Come on, we need to celebrate our victory. How about ice cream? My treat."

"Ice cream?" Tucker echoed, joining the group, "I'm in!"

"Us too!" Valerie said with Sam following her to the gathering.

"Wait," Jazz interrupted the enthusiasm, "it's nearly 4 in the morning, where are we gonna get ice cream?"

"I think we have some at the house," Maddie said, trying to remember.

"We have fudge at the house!" Jack pointed out excitedly.

Everyone laughed and the Team left Vlad's old lab, talking animatedly amongst themselves.

* * *

"See I told you we're too late," Ember complained, looking around the abandoned basement lab that Skulker had dragged her to.

"He is _not_ gonna be happy with us," Skulker said dismally.

Ember sighed. "I'm okay with that," she decided.

Skulker shrugged, "Me too."

"In fact, I prefer it that way," Ember continued, "It was too weird always checking up on him and being semi-friendly."

Skulker nodded. There was a long moment of silence between the two before Skulker finally broke it.

"So . . . you want to go see what he's up to?"

"Yah, let's go," Ember instantly agreed and the two took off.

**Yes, this was the climax. But no, this is not the last chapter. There will be an epilogue type thingy . . . once I write it. It's more to set the scene for the one-shot series though, but I guess it also brings closure to this story. So yah, stay tuned!**


	16. Chapter 16: Forgive and Forget

**Excuse the lack of knowledge concerning how a courtroom operates. I did my best using my one semester of high school law studies. Other than that, enjoy and keep in mind that this isn't really an ending, but a beginning. :) **

-4 Months Later-

Vlad sat waiting in his psychiatrist's office. She had warned him that she might be a little late getting back from lunch and told him to just wait in her office. This was actually not the first time this had happened. It was, however, the first time Vlad had been allowed to wait for her by himself. That's right, no warden. And Vlad had to admit, it felt great! Not that there wasn't still someone keeping track of his every move. He was sure there was, but at least he didn't have to deal with being physically followed around by the person.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Dr. Rosenberg said as she briskly entered the room, carrying her purse, a huge stack of folders, and a smoothie. She dumped everything on her desk and looked up to see Vlad smiling back at her.

"It's no problem, really," he assured her.

Dr. Rosenberg smiled back, her light brown hair falling out of her bun and her glasses slightly askew from her brisk walk into the building. "Of course not, I bet nothing could spoil your good mood today," she said as she attempted to put her disheveled appearance back in order.

"I'd have to agree," Vlad replied. Dr. Rosenberg may look like a stereotypical psychiatrist, but she didn't always act like it. Vlad liked that about her. They could actually talk; it wasn't all her talking down at him and then making him share his feelings like some other doctors he had encountered along the way.

Dr. Rosenberg slapped a newspaper down on the desk, facing Vlad. "You," she said meaningfully, "are a very lucky man."

Vlad stared down at the paper in front of him. "Huh, I knew I was the front page of Amity Park's paper, but USA Today?" He began reading the article with interest.

MASTERS CORRUPTED BY GHOST HALF, FINAL VERDICT: NOT GUILTY

It was the biggest trial Amity Park's humble courtroom had ever held. It was also supposed to be the easiest. Vlad Masters was finally standing trial for holding the world hostage during the infamous Disasteroid crisis.

"An open-and-shut case," the prosecutor had commented earlier, "No one wants to see this guy walk for what he did."

His statement was proven false almost immediately when, much to everyone's surprise, Masters entered the courtroom with the world's hero, not to mention his former archenemy, Danny Phantom, at his side. Team Phantom Jack, Maddie, and Jasmine Fenton; Samantha Manson; Tucker Foley; Valerie Grey were also present on the defense's side of the courtroom.

This should not have come as such a shock as it was common knowledge that Masters had been in contact with Team Phantom for reported "therapy sessions." However, many doubted that their young savior could really be attempting to befriend the man who had done him so much harm in the past. Yet now there was no denying that Phantom would indeed support Masters in his case and it was clear by the way the teenager was dressed that he meant business. Though in ghost form, Phantom wore a black suit and shirt with silver tie over his usual jumpsuit.

If that first moment were any indication, it was obvious that this would not be an ordinary, and certainly not easy, trial. The second shock came when Masters announced he was pleading "not guilty" on the grounds of insanity. Though it is true that Masters has been seeing a psychiatrist since he returned to Earth, it was thought that this was only to recover from the trauma he suffered from being alone in space for such a long period of time.

When Masters' psychiatrist, Dr. Debra Rosenberg, took the stand, the court found out otherwise. Dr. Rosenberg stated that she believed Masters had been battling quite a few psychological disorders ever since the accident that made him half ghost years ago.

"He's still got a chemical imbalance to prove it," Dr. Rosenberg explained. She then went on to describe Masters' positive reaction to treatment.

Her analysis of Masters' mental health was further backed by Jack and Maddie Fenton who knew Masters well enough before the accident to compare his normal behavior from back then to the manic antics they witnessed during the Disasteroid incident.

"There was a drastic difference, definitely," Maddie Fenton said from the stand, "But he seems to be changing again now, only for the better."

The Fentons were only the first of a whole slew of witnesses the defense had lined up to testify about Masters' attitude adjustment.

The most convincing, and probably most listened to, argument came from none other than Danny Phantom when he surprised the whole court by willingly taking the stand. It is no secret that Phantom likes his privacy and prefers to stay out of the lime-light as much as he can, which just goes to show how much the teen apparently cares about Masters' future.

Phantom had every eye and ear on him when he took the court by storm and started out his testimony by saying, "Vlad Masters is not insane."

This was followed by a dramatic pause, during which there was much confusion, though the room remained absolutely silent.

"Vlad Plasmius, by human standards, is insane," Phantom explained, "Most ghosts are. They're unreasonably obsessive, selfish, and violent. Vlad Plasmius, by ghost standards, is normal. However, Vlad Plasmius has a human half that for the past years he has struggled to keep subordinate to himself. Vlad was living with his ghost half ruling his life. But now that his human half has been given a chance to fight back, I am proud to say that he is letting humanity into his ghost half and I believe I have evidence to prove it."

Tucker Foley, the current mayor of Amity Park as well as one of the founding members of Team Phantom, then came forward with two pictures of Masters' ghost half. One was from before the Disasteroid while the other, Foley claimed, was recent.

This created an uproar as Masters was supposed to be restricted from using his ghost powers for the safety of the public. Phantom was able to calm the court by explaining that it was an emergency that caused him to allow Masters access to his ghost half.

"And," he stated proudly, "he did nothing while free to lose my trust. In fact, he saved me from a very tight spot."

Phantom would not comment further on the emergency and then moved on to point out how human Masters' ghost half was beginning to look.

It wasn't long after Phantom's speech that the moment came to announce the verdict. There is no doubt that the public's trust in their hero is what carried the decision as Masters was found not guilty of his crimes.

Total freedom, of course, does not come with the verdict since Masters used insanity as his plea. It was then announced that Masters would be required to live and receive treatment at Amity Park Psychological Institute with Dr. Rosenberg and her team of specialists. Living at the Institute comes with a curfew, but in comparison to prison it is more freedom than Masters had the right to hope for.

Dr. Rosenberg's intentions to keep Masters locked out of his ghost form unless it is part of therapy are a reassurance against Masters acting out now that he is no longer in prison. Although, not many fear this happening, thanks to one optimistic half ghost teenager.

"Vlad won't waste this second chance," Phantom assured reporters outside the court room after the trial, "He knows how precious it is." There was an obvious pause here as Phantom glanced around as if looking for the other half ghost. Masters could be seen farther away on the steps to the court house also surrounded by reporters. Only a second later he wasn't because Phantom had apparently flown over and grabbed him.

"And he knows what I'll do to him if he does waste it," Phantom concluded jokingly, now with Masters right next to him.

"Kill my dad and marry my mom?" Masters stunned the reporters by suggesting.

Phantom only chuckled, proving that all really is forgiven.

* * *

"Ugh," Vlad commented when he finished reading, "did they have to make us sound so chummy at the end? I mean, who is going to believe that? And besides, it's not like forgive and forget." He folded the paper and put it back down on the desk. "Danny and I still have to deal with the reality of what happened between us every day. I'm forgiven sure, but forgotten, _never_."

"That's very wise of you to realize," Dr. Rosenberg agreed, "It's kind of sad."

Vlad sighed, leaning back in his chair. Then he laughed, "Well, it's better than prison." He checked his watch. "I have to go soon; I'm meeting Danny and his friends for a movie."

"A movie?" Dr. Rosenberg questioned, "You almost got put in prison and you're going to use your new freedom to see a movie?"

Vlad just nodded.

Dr. Rosenberg laughed and went back to examining one of the folders she had opened while Vlad was reading the newspaper article. Vlad started to leave when the psychiatrist looked back up at him over her glasses. "You know," she began, "they just might forget you if all you do is sit around watching movies."

Vlad smiled. "Yah maybe," he replied, somewhat missing her meaning, and stepped out of her office. As he was walking down the hallway a college-age girl with wavy brown hair, most likely an intern at the Institute, passed by him. Vlad couldn't help but notice out of the corner of his eye the oh-my-gosh-is-that-who-I-think-it-is expression on her face, followed shortly by the flash of terror in her eyes.

"And maybe not," he thought sadly to himself.

**Look for the first chapter of the one-shot series probably Wednesday. It will be the deleted scenes from this story. Then I most likely will not be posting or writing for a few days cuz I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out (eek!) and I'm told that all I will want to do is pop pain pills and sleep! But I will return once my head clears and the pain lessens. ;)**


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